On the Practical Application of Magic
by NecroSovereign
Summary: An omnipotent alien computer arrives on Earth and accidentally materialises Gensoukyou, which proves to be beyond her understanding.
1. Who are you, exactly?

**Who are you, exactly? **

On a cliff in southern Japan were two girls. One of them was floating just above the edge of the cliff while the other was eyeing her with curiosity.

"You look kinda like Nagato Yuki," she said, "Also, judging from the fact that you appeared from nowhere, I suppose that you are the cause of Earth going to Hell for the last several months."

"I am the cyborg of planetary magnitude. My identifier is Anima. As a result of planetwide meteorite shower, Earth was covered by delirium. Its contact with this biosphere activated my processes. As a consequence I am currently the mind of Earth."

"Shouldn't you then be busy with important things, such as orbiting the Sun instead of talking with me? "

"You are Áviya, the necrophiliac witch. I am using only a small fraction of my power for communicating with you. You are the first tainted human who survived."

"I am not a human! " growled Áviya, "And dissecting corpses for fun hardly qualifies as necrophilia," she continued with a grin.

"I am using the consistent definitions. Philia means attraction."

"Actually I am the Sorceress of Pestilence. And only human would call this a taint. As far as I can tell, my powers have no drawbacks."

"Contact of a chemical biorg with delirium may result in significant increase of its concentration inside their body. In most cases it's removed by natural processes. But in some animals it forms an AI, which immediately and absolutely dominated by the mind of the biorg. This AI grants its host randomly created extraordinary abilities. This is the taint of delirium."

Áviya chuckled, "I have a feeling that as we talk the number of questions will increase exponentially. I already have about four. What are biorgs? What is your definition of cyborg? How can the taint be fatal? What is delirium? Where have you came from? "

"Biorg is organism created by evolution. Cyborg is organism designed to be able to function without needing to use death and reproduction. My source is the stellar system of the Creators 11 954 129 095 779 196 425 568 302 328 853 108 961 754 695 667 426 784 Planck lengths..."

"Stop," interrupted Áviya. "I think you should limit yourself to accuracy within one percent like '12.0 octilliard Planck lengths'. Also, it's dumb to measure intergalactic distance in Planck lengths, it's impossible to achieve such precision."

"This number was accurate in the moment I finished its output. Delirium was created as material for cyborgs active in chemical biospheres outside stellar system. I and my siblings was sent in random direction. Because of attraction of delirium to chemical biorgs, each of us was supposed to arrive to chemical biosphere and contact it. Most of tainted humans died from tumours created when they tried to increase size of one of their organs, other ripped their bodies apart, thirds from collision with obstacle while running..."

"I got the idea," said Áviya. "But wouldn't human collapse from exhaustion before achieving lethal speed? "

"Delirium uses sources of energy and momentum other than chemical"

"Like what? "

"It would take 67.2 octillion Planck times to explain this to you."

"Oh, I get it. The Creators are sufficiently advanced aliens."

"Their technology is very different from the one here."

"So, I suppose we are going to have danmaku duel now."

"Danmaku duel..." said Anima, as if entering a search query. Suddenly, her voice changed: "Soon you will be behind my barriers, there within, is neither night nor day! The edges of my barriers cannot be found! Barrier: 'Boundary of Life and Death! ' "

Various danmaku bullets floated in all direction, passing harmlessly through Áviya.

"Well, this is disappointing," she said.

"It is ineffective to fight using visual hallucinations," said Anima, returning to her normal voice.

"So, what was this 'channelling Yukari' thing about? " asked Áviya.

"I drew extra attention to most powerful danmaku attack. Such actions could have some side effect. For example, when I was analysing demons, I found out that they should be properly labelled as half-demons since their qualities are preserved when mating with humans. Demon phenotype is apparently determined by mutated version of X chromosome, which include such trait as suppression of SRY gene and rejection of implantation of blastocyst with XX karyotype. I have done this analysis in Central Africa. They exist there now."

"You can create living being from scratch? " asked Áviya sceptically.

"It's possible to create biorg without working brain. But working brain has signal-to-noise ratio too low for accurate synthesis. I merely converted some humans into half-demons and made it so as if they were born half-demons."

"Including brainwashing? "

"Low coherency of human mind makes it's practically impossible to control. Collective consciousness of group of humans is much more coherent, so it's possible to edit it. Human minds will then construct consistent picture by themselves."

"So you can't read my mind, are you? "

"Reading your mind is easy. It's impossible to extract coherent information from it."

"I always knew I am special! " said Áviya with a grin.

"You are just an ordinary tainted human."

"I already said that I am not a human! Anyway, what are my powers exactly? "

"You already know this."

"No, I only have empirical model. For example, I know that my body contain about five tons of bacteria, but it doesn't seem to affect my inertial or gravitational parameters for some reason"

"Massive particles was converted to their massless counterparts and rotates out of three-dimensional space you perceive."

"Even if they are massless I still have to exert force on them to change their momentum and they should move at the speed of light, which is a little faster than my maximal speed."

"Your misunderstanding is caused by the limits of your knowledge. Any local theory isn't even close to describing those particles."

Áviya picked a green crystal about ten centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter. "Can I do something interesting with this sample of delirium? " she asked.

"It can be activated by some species of bacteria."

Áviya licked the crystal. As soon as it touched her tongue it started to leave a green line after itself when moved. Áviya carefully moved her mouth away from the line and focused her attention on the crystal.

"Okay, I'm going to determine which one is it by removing them one by one. Is it this one? " she moved the crystal. "No. This one? " another movement. "No. This one? .."

This continued for about a minute until the crystal stopped producing its special effects. "I got you! " exclaimed Áviya. "It is very unusual bacterium. It doesn't even have a scientific name," she said thoughtfully.

Zigzagging green line hung in the air.

"So, what goes next? " asked Áviya.

"Pressure will trigger execution."

Áviya squeezed the crystal. Immediately green line disappeared and, after a few seconds, electric arc appeared between its ending points.

"I guess voltage is proportional to amount of time I am squeezing delirium crystal."

"It's correct. But it isn't crystal, delirium is a continuous state of matter, it isn't composed of discrete particles."

"But... Dammit, I wish you were from nearby star system, so I could understand how everything works. Is it only good for electrocuting and producing infinite energy? "

"Effect depends on the form of the line. Cross shape cancels the effect. I will disable this avatar now," said Anima disappearing.

"Hey! I am not out of questions! " angrily demanded Áviya.

She crossed out the electric arc and looked at the shard of delirium in her hand. "[English]Hmm..., it almost says: 'Handheld laser,' " her grin widened and she went in the direction of the nearest town.

**Elsewhere:**

"Say, Yukari."

"Yes? "

"Why is there a desert behind my shrine?! Isn't the Hakurei Barrier supposed to be there?! "

"Oh, that. Don't worry Reimu. The Barrier is still there, it just became permeable."

**End of elsewhere**

A few hours later Áviya was walking in a back alley of a town and encountered two men who walked unsteadily.

"Look, buddy, a pretty girl," said one of them slurring words.

"What have we here? A pair of test subjects? " said Áviya

"It's even better: she is a gaijin! " said the other one and grabbed Áviya's right elbow. "Kiss me, pretty girl."

Áviya laughed mockingly and second later he fell down choking. Then the same happened on the first man.

"Normally, I would take the infection back," said Áviya, while they were lying down trying to breath, "But since you are just worthless drunkards, I'll leave you here with it to die within a day."

She had turned to leave but slapped herself on the forehead. "I almost forgot! " She walked to the nearest man, took a shard of delirium out of her pocket and connected his right thumb with his left foot with zigzagging green line. Then she rose up and pressed on the shard with her index finger. After few seconds the man started to scream. Then smoke rose from his body. Then screaming stopped. Áviya continued pressing for about a minute after that.

"[English]Interesting... I hoped he would burst into flames," she looked around. "[English]So, one was electrocuted and another left as a control group." She turned and called cheerfully over her shoulder, "Die painfully, human! " And she walked away, laughing.

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_This log is intended to be read by humans. As such it includes only explanations that can be understood by humans. For this reason numerical parameters in it is mostly replaced by verbal description of magnitude. Furthermore, profiles of notable biorgs include description generated by an algorithm based on analysis of human fiction. It has several flaws supposedly caused by the flaws in human perception. These flaws are: neglect of non-visual information such as electromagnetic fields, density distribution, biochemical deviations from norm and others (full list in log 768), unnecessary attention to size of mammary glands of female humans instead of providing parameters for each cross section (as done in logs intended for cyborgs (full list in log 294)), limited information about spectrum of electromagnetic radiation reflected from various body parts and others (full list in log 768)._

**End of fragment**

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Áviya (human pronunciation, Castillian variant). _

_**Type:**__ Human, tainted. _

_**Age:**__ 23. _

_**Sex:**__ Female. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal human abilities. _

_2. Immune system enhanced by delirium-based AI allows quick destruction of foreign agents, conscious control of prokaryotes and assimilation of transplanted human tissue. _

_3. Ability to break and restore connections between cells in animal tissues she touches without triggering apoptosis. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal human weaknesses, except those neutralised by her abilities. _

_2. Absence of olfactory perception makes her more vulnerable to the poisonous chemicals. _

_**Description:**__ She is slightly taller than average. She has ordinary grey eyes. Her mostly dark brown hair is straight and reaches her shoulders. Two symmetrical red stripes of hair are framing her face. Her face is average for a human female of Caucasian physical type. However, no one who have interacted with her will fail to recognise her, because of her constant mad grin which shows teeth slightly sharper than normal. Her breasts are just big enough to barely serve as secondary sexual characteristic when she is dressed and only her upper torso is visible. Overall, she has somewhat tomboyish figure. She usually wears a grey long-sleeved t-shirt, a black sweater vest, a dark grey medium-length skirt, thick opaque grey tights, black socks, black featureless loafers, a backpack and black gloves. _

**End of fragment**


	2. What is a vampire?

**What is a vampire? **

That night, at the gates of Koumakan. It was ordinary quiet night, which is unusual for Gensoukyou. Meiling just started to relax when she thought she saw a flash of red. But in less than fraction of second, before she had time to concentrate qi, she was completely wrapped by red sticky ribbon. A pink figure appeared in front of her and pushed her on her back. She sat on Meiling's stomach.

"How do you move so f..." Meiling wasn't able to finish, because the pink figure sealed her mouth with the red substance strangely similar to the material of the red ribbon. She took a voluminous suitcase from the claws of her right wing and put it on the side. When opened, this suitcase revealed a strange machine with rubber tubes and a large container partially filled with red liquid. The pink figure took a scalpel from the suitcase and made a long vertical incision in the middle of Meiling's chest cutting through red material, clothes and skin. She pulled the sides of the incision apart, inhumanly quickly sealing breaking blood vessels with the red substance. After baring the ribcage, she took bone shears from suitcase and cut Meiling's ribs. Then she removed the sternum and touched the heart. She made a small cut in aorta and inserted her finger into it to shed a drop of her blood in Meiling's bloodstream. Then she cut the aorta fully and connected the tubes of the machine to both openings so quickly that no blood was spilled. She pressed a button, activating the machine to pump Meiling's blood into the container. After all blood had been pumped, she disconnected the tubes, packed the suitcase, took it in the wing and looked at the mansion.

"[Swedish]Ett avlägsen herrgård full av oskyldiga människor och deras blod..." she licked her lips, pushed open the gates and flew towards the mansion.

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Ragna af Rödberg (human pronunciation, Swedish variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, Vampire. _

_**Age:**__ N/A (Human body died at the age of 18 years). _

_**Sex:**__ Female. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of deformed human corpse. _

_2. She can use her organs as if they are alive as long as there are enough erythrocytes inside them. _

_3. She is slightly stronger than possible for humans. _

_4. Internal organs of her abdominopelvic cavity is converted into blood container. She can store up to about 400 googol cubic Planck lengths of blood without deformation of her body. Additional blood is stored in fat tissue which can be quickly generated for this purpose and is destroyed when drained of blood. _

_5. She can consciously move blood or blood cells inside her body. _

_6. She can use her blood to create strong adhesive material (resembling spider silk) and projectiles such as spears and darts. Blood used for this is bled through consciously induced wounds. _

_7. She can use her blood to regenerate damage to her body. Volume of used blood is equal to volume of restored structures. _

_8. She constantly floats about 12.5 quintilliard Planck lengths above highest object under her feet. She can freely move horizontally but her vertical movement is restricted by gravity. Her terminal velocity is about normal human walking speed. _

_9. She is able to move very fast unaffected by air resistance. Additionally, she can perceive and react to rapidly moving object. _

_10. She can control biorgs of species Eremobates leechi and augment them by feeding them her blood. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal weaknesses of deformed human corpse except those neutralised by her abilities. _

_2. She must spend about a liter of blood per day to prevent her body from degradation. _

_3. Any orifice in her lower torso will cause uncontrolled bleeding until sealed. _

_4. Contact of her skin with bright light causes third degree burns which quickly turns into bleeding wounds. _

_5. Since she is essentially a colony of erythrocytic intracellular parasites, she will die if there is no erythrocytes in her body. _

_6. Contact with delirium not bound to her biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of her skin. _

_**Description:**__ She is short. She has rust-coloured eyes. She is pale as a corpse. Her rust-coloured hair is tied into ringletted ponytail. Her chest is completely flat. She has royal posture. The second vertebral column branches up from the first at her waist and ends with the second shoulder girdle. These bones covered by muscles and skin form a hump on her back. Wings resembling those of pterosaur are attached to the second shoulder girdle. These wings are covered with normal human pale skin with visible blood vessels. Her wingspan is roughly equal to her height. She usually wears a long backless pink dress with sleeves covering whole arm, pink silk gloves, pink socks, pink ballet flats, silver tiara and a black opaque hooded silk cloak. _

**End of fragment**

It was teatime in Koumakan. Remilia was drinking red tea sitting at the table while Sakuya was standing beside her holding a silver tray. Patchouli was reading a book in an armchair nearby. Because of that, Ragna's arrival through the window into exactly that room didn't go unnoticed.

"Another rat," muttered Patchouli and the page in her book turned itself.

Apparently Ragna was quite used to grand entrances. She tried to use attention she got to induce panic.

"[English]Bow before me, mortals! " she ordered.

Patchouli calmly looked at her.

"[English]Are you aware that there are a devil, a magician and a maid present in this room? " she asked.

"What's she saying, Patchy? " intervened Remilia.

"[English]Yeah, just a bunch of geeks dressed like this is Middle Ages," Ragna obviously wasn't impressed. "[English]I think I start with the little child over there."

She conjured a blood spear and moved in a blur. Almost immediately Remilia moved just as fast. In the next moment Ragna was pinned down with Remilia's right hand on her throat and her right hand, which was holding the spear, was pressed down to the floor.

"[English]You are as light as a feather! How can you possibly be holding me down?! " screamed Ragna, struggling.

"Patchy, what, in the name of Ţepeş, is going on?! " demanded Remilia.

Patchouli levitated closer.

"[English]Patience, intruder" she ordered Ragna. "It seems she thought that this is a human mansion," she explained to Remilia. She frowned for a moment and asked, "Can you wait a minute? I have a spell in the library that will let you talk to her."

"Okay."

Patchouli went away and returned with a book titled "Magic of language."

"Open your mouth," she asked Remilia.

After Remilia done so, Patchouli started to weave the spell. She was chanting and gesturing for about a minute, while opened book levitated in front of her. When she finished, a small sphere of light appeared, entered Remilia's mouth and enveloped her tongue. Patchouli inhaled sharply and started coughing.

"Done..." she said through coughs.

"Go catch your breath. I can deal with her from here."

"[English]This almost looked like a real magic. You got an asthmatic to roleplay a wizard? How original."

"Nobody permitted you to speak! Who are you? "

"[English]I am Ragna af Rödberg, honorary princess of Sweden. Who are you to think you can give me orders? "

"I am Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil and a descendant of Ţepeş."

"[English]Ţepeş? Are some kind of Eastern European peasant? "

"I am a vampire! "

"[English]A vampire?! [Swedish]Skit! [English]Prove it."

"See these fangs? "

"[English]Do you still think that vampires have fangs? See this? " Ragna bared her perfectly human teeth. "[English] Show me that you can use blood magic."

"Are you implying that you are a vampire too? You are too weak! " Remilia laughed. "But very well, I'll show you. Don't move" She rose into air.

"Red Magic! "

Spellcard unfurled in all its scarlet beauty. Strangely, it didn't have any effect on Ragna other than moderately impressing her.

"[English]I didn't know the blood magic could be used for illusions, but I can smell blood," she said.

Remilia was furious. She swooped down, grabbed Ragna by the neck and lifted her in the air.

"How dare you ignore my spellcard?! "

"It looks that she is less magical than even any human." said Patchouli, who had already finished coughing. "In fact, I sense less elemental energy in her than is minimally possible. Damnaku simply can't find anything to interact with."

"Then how she was able to summon that spear?! "

"I don't know. I suspect she is operating on principles similar to those of advanced magic of the Outside World."

Remilia hurled Ragna on the floor. She hit the floor like a corpse and rose up, floating just above the its surface.

"[English]Stop this! " she said. "[English]Anyway, we are both vampires and you have defeated me. So, we both know what happens next."

"You going to kill yourself? " asked Remilia.

"[English]No, now I have to serve you. How could you not know this? Haven't Asha talked to you when your body died? "

"Who is Asha? "

"[English]She is the first vampire who had merged with a lake of blood and is now sending visions to the new vampires during their transformation. How can such impossibly powerful vampire be so ignorant?! "

"What, in the name of Ţepeş, are you talking about? Besides, I don't need such a weak servant."

"[English]And I don't want to serve you. But this is one of vampires' instincts. I am compelled to form pact with you and obey all your orders afterwards."

"If I may." intervened Patchouli. She whispered to Remilia, "Remi, I would like to study her. It will be easier if she has to obey you."

Remilia smiled, showing her teeth. "Okay, let's go with this. What do you need for this pact? "

"[Swedish]Skit! " Ragna was obviously disappointed. "[English]Just an empty glass."

"Sakuya! "

Sakuya appeared and passed a glass to Ragna. She placed her left hand above the glass and blood started flowing from her palm and filled the glass to the half. She offered the glass to Remilia.

"[English]You have to fill the other half with your blood."

Remilia elegantly bit her finger and gracefully shed some of her blood in the glass. Then she passed the glass back to Ragna. She drunk about a third of the glass and said.

"[English]I, Ragna af Rödberg, swear to serve you, Remilia Scarlet, the strongest vampire. Now, you have to drink the rest."

Remilia drank the glass down to the last drop.

"[English]Now, that we've done with this nonsense, can I leave? "

Remilia smiled gleefully. "No, I forbid you to leave the mansion without my permission."

"[English]What?! Please, I'll pay you 100 000 euro if you let me go."

"Patchy! " called Remilia, "She is speaking gibberish again! "

Patchouli approached. "The spell just wore off. It looks like she is trying to bribe you."

"So, nothing important? I am going to go find something interesting to do. Tell her that I forbid her to attack you, Sakuya, Meiling and your servant... What was her name again? "

"She doesn't have a name. She is referred to as Koakuma."

"Yes, you may include her if you want."

"What about the little sister? "

"I don't care if she want to commit suicide. You may warn her, though." And Remilia flew away.

Patchouli conveyed Remilia's order to Ragna and added, "[English]I have some advice for you: don't touch my books without permission and stay away from the basement. Remilia's younger sister lives there and when she physically beats someone, my books tend to fall from the shelves."

"[English]You think you can threaten me, asthmatic? "

Patchouli muttered something and Ragna found herself inside a tight bubble.

"[English]I think I can." She dismissed the bubble and departed.

Meiling burst into room. She still had a large wound in her chest, but was otherwise fine.

"Mistress, there is... You daughter of a dog! " She leaped to Ragna and struck her into chest with enough force to flatten her torso at the point of impact. Blood flowed from Ragna's torn major vessels.

"Meiling, what have I told you about spilling blood on the floor? " asked Sakuya.

"But she broke my heart and drained all my blood! .." Meiling paused and added, "I mean, she cut my heart! "

"Mistress already subdued her. She now serves her. Now, return to your post." said Sakuya and vanished.

Meiling stood there for moment and then walked to the lying Ragna.

"You're alive?! " they said simultaneously.

"What kind of youkai are you? "

"[English]Since when does nobody in Africa speaks English? "

"Why don't you speak Japanese? "

"[English]You aren't worth my time." Ragna closed her eyes.

Meiling sighed."This is useless. What does Mistress thought when she was hiring servant who doesn't know Japanese." With these words she walked away.

Ragna, being left alone and had already healed her wound and repaired her dress with blood threads, rose up. She looked around.

"[Swedish]'A mansion full of innocent people...' " she hissed, "[Swedish]This is turning out to be such a huge waste of blood." She paused. "[Swedish]I need to contact Walter somehow." She glanced at furniture. "[Swedish]What a nice mansion they have here. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it." She shook her head. "[Swedish] No, I'll probably just get more restrictions."

Suddenly she covered her mouth and whispered, "[Swedish]Skit! What am I thinking?! They probably have listening devices here."

Sakuya appeared beside her. Or rather, she appeared and then appeared again next to empty space pierced by a blood spear.

"[English]What kind of maid sneaks up on people and dodges a spear launched at superhuman speed?! " exclaimed Ragna, angrily.

"[English]If the head maid of Scarlet household couldn't pull off something like this, then what would happen? " said Sakuya

"[English]It would be easier to handle. What kind of mansion is this that even a maid have some weird tricks?! "

"[English]This is Koumakan, the mansion of the Scarlet Devil."

"[English]Great, I am stuck with a megalomaniac and a bunch of Satanists. What do you want? "

"[English]I'm here to show you to your room."

"[English]Finally, I'm getting some respect. Let's go."


	3. Tank repairs, lemures and daemons

**Tank repairs, lemures and daemons.**

Later, in the Algerian desert. A heavy tank was somewhere around there with three soldiers inside.

"[English]Training target at 1.618 o'clock! " said the commander, "[English]Open fire! "

"[English]Yes, sir! " responded the gunner.

Tank shot at a green object.

"[English]Target destroyed, sir! "

"[English]Approach destroyed target at low speed! "

"[English]Yes, sir! " responded the driver.

"[English]Permission to ask a question, sir? " asked the gunner when tank was next to the absence of destroyed target.

"[English]Granted." said commander.

"[English]Is this target supposed to leave claw marks when shot? "

"[English]What claw marks? "

The commander was interrupted by grinding and scraping noises. The entire tank turret was torn from its main body and the crew saw humanoid silhouette of a monster standing on the hull, holding turret over her head. The monster roared and leaped inside the tank. The commander and the gunner had their faces torn off immediately. While the monster was butchering his crewmates, the driver managed to get out of tank and to run away. But the monster was too perceptive to share her prey with someone else. She leaped out of the tank with the speed that made escape useless. The sand under her feet turned to glass. The moonlight illuminated the monster as green-skinned, long-haired girl. It seemed that the only damage tank shell inflicted was to her clothes. Only tatters hidden under her hairs were left of them. Desperate, the driver noticed that he was clutching a rocket launcher. He fired a rocket, then another, then the third. But the rockets only was only knocking the monster back. The driver reached for the fourth rocket and found none. His confusion let the monster close the remaining distance. The monster grabbed his shoulders with her searingly hot hands and flattened his pectoral girdle along dextro-sinister axis...

After few minutes the whole tank was reduced to half-melted scrap. And after an hour the only thing thing left from its crew was the blood smears on metal.

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Sexta (human pronunciation, Latin variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, half-demon. _

_**Age:**__ 20. _

_**Sex:**__ Female. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of deformed human. _

_2. Her tissues have very high elastic moduli and very high elastic limit. _

_3. Total digestion of any organic matter (swallowed inorganic matter is melted and returned to oral cavity because large intestine is absent in half-demons). _

_4. Regeneration. Necessary energy and material generated by delirium. _

_5. Ability to heat objects by touch. _

_6. She is strong enough to destroy objects made of any material. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. High rigidity of her skin limits her speed to normal for human. This, coupled with her normal for human mass, limits applications of her strength. _

_2. She is vulnerable to temperatures about 70 quintillionths of Planck temperature or higher. _

_3. She is paralysed if her skin is cooled below melting point of water (About 1.95 quintillionth of the Planck temperature). _

_4. Contact with delirium not bound to her biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of her skin. _

_5. Her regeneration stops if her brain is damaged enough. Such an event is fatal for her. _

_6. When angry she loses control of her actions and her abilities. _

_**Description:**__ She is quite tall. Her skin is bright green and covered by crocodile-like scales. She has green eyes with slitted pupils. Her hair is dark green and reaches her knees. She has sharp teeth and small horns on her forehead. She has relatively large breasts which, because of rigidity of her skin, don't move and have such shape as if they are unaffected by gravity. Despite her strength she doesn't appear to be very muscular. Distal phalanges of her finger resemble that of a cat. She also has cat-like claws. She has a long scaled tail. Her legs resemble that of a large theropod but with some human features in proximal parts and are more or less straight. She always, if possible, wears a robe resembling a sack with holes and long sleeves and a green male symbol on the chest. _

**End of fragment**

Next morning, in the Fusion Reactor of the Hell of Blazing Fires. Only Utsuho was there at that time. Her connection with the reactor informed her about particularly dense irregularity in it. She flew to the source of disturbance and saw the inhuman figure of Sexta.

"You are interfering with the proper operation of the reactor. Please leave or be annihilated," said Utsuho.

Sexta roared and leaped at Utsuho. This ended about as successfully as a cat's attempt to catch a raven. Utsuho easily dodged her and aimed her arm cannon at her.

"What are you doing, Okuu? " Orin appeared as if out of nowhere.

"I found this girl here in the reactor..."

"And you are already incinerating her? What about leaving a corpse for me? "

While Utsuho was thinking about the answer, Sexta, whose clothes was already burning, leaped again. Lost in thoughts, Utsuho waved arm cannon at her and the plasma beam from it cut Sexta's torso diagonally.

Orin let out a grating meow. "Now I will have to glue her corpse back together."

Upper part of Sexta landed on the rocks at the edge of basalt lake that was formed by the reactor. Stones under her turned red and started to melt.

"Okuu! She's going to fall into magma! "

Sexta slipped down. Okuu flew after her and found Sexta lying on the surface of the lake, stubbornly refusing to get even burns. She grabbed her arms and flew back to Orin.

"Did she just survived fall into magma undamaged? " said Orin, shocked. She sniffed. "She doesn't smell like she has a corpse."

"Found something strange? " said Satori.

"Satori-sama! " exclaimed Orin and Utsuno in unison.

Sexta, apparently, had calmed down. She opened her eyes and said, "[Latino]Cerere, auxilio mei"

"Why do you think that she just said something? " asked Satori.

Utsuho and Orin looked at her, stunned.

"You didn't hear anything? "

Sexta made another attempt at communicating, "[Latino]Proserpina, fui duco te cur mei ad huc? "

"This is odd: she is talking, but isn't thinking. That is why it's hard for me notice that she is saying something." said Satori.

"No, I can't understand her." she responded to someone's thought.

"[Latino]Sum vobis quo? "

"It sounds like Latin. Let me try."

Satori turned to Sexta and said with difficulty, "[Latin]Quis ... es ... tu? " Sexta reacted like she never heard some of this words before.

"Well, that was about everything I know about Latin." admitted Satori.

Orin, apparently bored with the conversation going nowhere, gestured at one of the evil spirits floating around her. It floated to Sexta and dissipated.

"Orin! It's rude to possess guests! "

Orin meowed apologetically.

"[Latino]Oh, no! I have been captured by the servants of Vulcanus! " she heard suddenly. Orin jumped on the spot.

"Orin, you understood this? " said Satori.

"Why wouldn't I? She said that in Japanese."

"Strange... Okuu, what did you hear? "

"[Latino]Ehue! Me fuerim praehendo a servorum de Vulcani! " said Utsuho in Sexta's voice.

Sexta looked up at Utsuho. "[Latino]You too? "

Orin clutched her head. "Argh! Stop it! Why is this strange girl speaking in Japanese and Utsuho in her strange language?! It supposed to be the other way round! "

"I just said what she said," said Utsuho, confused.

"[Latino]Do you understand me? " asked Sexta.

"Maybe." said Orin.

"No." said Satori.

"So, Orin can understand her but I and Satori-sama can't? " said Utsuho. "It's strange."

"True," confirmed Satori. "In addition, she doesn't show any signs of possession."

"She does show the signs of regeneration, though,"said Orin. "Okuu, maybe you should restrain her more carefully."

"[Latino]You will never capture me alive, servants of Vulcanus." Sexta twisted herself, kicked Okuu in the face and fell on the ground.

"We don't know anything about Vulcanus! " said Orin.

"[Latino]Vulcanus is a daemon who is fighting the lemur Pluto for the control of the Underworld. Everyone in the Underworld is supposed to know about that."

Orin opened her mouth to answer, but Satori interrupted her, "Careful, Orin. Say that this place isn't connected to the Underworld."

"We are youkai! There are no daemons or lemures in Gensoukyou! " said Orin.

"[Latino]Oh, no! What will I do? My monastery was destroyed, Ceres doesn't answer my prayers! I lack guidance! Help me! " said Sexta.

"Well... I suppose we can take her as pet," said Satori.

Orin reacted with enthusiasm. "You want to be a Satori-sama's pet? " she asked Sexta.

"[Latino]A pet? .. We are all pets of Ceres." said Sexta.

Satori used Orin's confusion to intervene. "Wait, Orin. We have to introduce each other first."

"Sorry, I forgot." said Orin. She turned to Sexta, "I am Kaenbyou Orin, a kasha, this is Reiuji Utsuho or Okuu, a hell raven with the powers of Yatagarasu and this is Komeiji Satori-sama, well, a satori. So, who are you?"

"[Latino]I am Sexta, a half-daemon made by Ceres from the blood of Vulcanus collected by Mars in battle. I am a Chosen of Mars. This is why I am wearing his sign." She pointed at her chest and noticed that her clothes had burned up. "[Latino] Oh, no! I must always have the sign of Mars on my clothes! Do you have anything I can draw on and wear? "

Orin looked around, then pulled a shroud from her wheelbarrow and gave it Sexta. Sexta cut her finger with a claw, draw an alchemical symbol of iron in the middle of the one of the quadrants with her hot corrosive blood, tore hole in the middle and put the still smoking shroud on herself, so that the symbol was over her chest."[Latino]Okay, now I am almost properly dressed."

"Almost? " asked Orin.

"[Latino]Actually, the members of the White Order must wear robes with holy symbols, but mine keep burning up for some reason."

"The White Order? " asked Orin.

"[Latino]The White Order is a group of people who serve Ceres as the one and the only Goddess. Unfortunately, our monastery was destroyed and only I survived, because I succumbed to the temptation of Vulcanus. How I must repent for that by spreading the teaching of Ceres."

"The only goddess? She already mentioned at least five gods: Proserpina, Ceres, Vulcanus, Pluto and Mars." said Satori.

"Yes! What about them? " asked Orin.

"[Latino]About who? "

"Proserpina, Vulcanus, Pluto and Mars."

"[Latino]They are lemures, the servants of Ceres just as I, though immensely more powerful. Proserpina is the wife of Pluto, queen of the Underworld and the lemur of love. Pluto is the sovereign of the Underworld and the realm of the good dead, but still just a lemur. Mars is the lemur of fighting and war and my patron. Vulcanus is one of the daemons, the enemies of Ceres. He is the daemon of meaningless torture, machines and malevolent fire, who took half of the Underworld and turned it into the Fire Plains. The sinners are sent to his realm after death. There are other. Iuppiter is the master of daemons, created by Ceres as the source of evil, and the daemon of rape. Iuno is the wife of Iuppiter and the daemon of family and women's faithfulness in marriage. Minerva is the daemon of science and logical arguments. Apollo is the daemon of poisons, wine, music and archery. And there is Diana, the sister of Apollo. She is the lemur of hunting and truth." said Sexta as if reciting the memorized lesson.

Orin listened with her mouth open.

"She have a really complicated religion," said Satori. "We should be careful to not offend her."

"But she is cute. Let's take anyway." asked Orin.

"Well, it's will be better if we will be able to control instead of letting her spread pointless mayhem. I agree."

"So, do you want to be a Satori-sama's pet or not? " said Orin.

"[Latino]I need a master to guide me. Is Satori-sama wise? "

"Of course! " said Orin, enthusiastically.

"[Latino]Then take me, mistress." Sexta kneeled before Satori.

Satori petted her. "Good girl." She turned to Orin, "You can take care of her. I'm going back to my room."


	4. Earth rotates?

**Earth rotates? **

Afternoon of the same day, somewhere in Japan. Anima appeared before Áviya.

"You just like any other god. Come and go as you please. I already forgot what questions I wanted to ask you." said Áviya.

"It is possible that you want to see the consequence of your actions," stated Anima.

Before Áviya was able to answer she found herself moving northwest accelerating.

After some time she stopped in a desert. Anima was floating nearby.

"The whole trip was about 25 minutes. Half of the time it was accelerating motion, the other half - decelerating," said Áviya. "Sea level was consistently at pi/4 angle to gravity, which gives acceleration of about g. So, I was moved about 11 000 km, which means that this is either Sahara or one of North American deserts." She slapped herself on the forehead."Dammit! I forgot to take the rotation of the Earth into account! "

"You are in the part of Earth called Algeria. Look behind you."

Áviya turned and found a forest with unnaturally straight border.

"What the hell is this?! Some kind of Dido's practical joke? "

"During experiment with danmaku, the illusionary being Yakumo Yukari was materialised. As a result, a part of my mind was isolated. This is what you see before you."

"Wait, Yukari is material now? As if one material omnipotent being wasn't enough." said Áviya. She looked at the forest. "There is an ordinary witch flying here. By the nine hells, have you created the Gensoukyou?! "

"I haven't done anything like this. It appeared entirely by itself, despite such event being highly improbable."

"Pick one: Magic, Yukari fooling around, Eirin's shady new drug or Moriya shrine conspiracy. I pick first and second."

Marisa arrived and said,"I found the culprits of this incident before Reimu! "

"I think she wants to fight you." said Áviya to Anima quietly.

Anima looked at Marisa. "It's impossible for ordinary human to harm me."

"I'm an ordinary witch. You aren't the first youkai to underestimate me." said Marisa smirking.

"How are you going to attack me? You don't have any ranged weapons and to reach me for melee attack you have to rely on the chain of highly improbable events, that are keeping you afloat, to continue long enough."

"I'm going to attack you with magic, of course! "

"With magic? Concentration of delirium in your body is close enough to zero to make this impossible."

"You think so?! Well, try to dodge this! Love Sign 'Non-Directional Laser'! "

"Uh-oh. I'd like to make a statement that I am not involved in this and my interactions with this spellcard lack any significance whatsoever." said Áviya

Anima looked at danmaku lasers passing through her. "It has already been established that fighting using visual hallucinations is ineffective."

"Ineffective?! " Marisa pulled her mini-Hakkero out of her hat. "Let's see what you will say about this! MASTER SPARK! "

Giant laser beam fired annihilating everything in its past, including Anima's avatar.

"In the news today: an omnipotent alien computer is cosplaying Nightmare Moon! This wasn't danmaku, was it? " said Áviya.

"No. I might have gone a little overboard with it. Anyway, who are you? " asked Marisa, suspiciously.

"I'm just an animal who happened to be here" said Áviya with a weird grin.

"You look human to me."

"Humans are animals too, but I am not a human. Although, I am not youkai either."

Anima chose this moment to appear.

"You have only destroyed my avatar. You have to damage a large part of Earth to even hurt me. You didn't fool me trying to appear as the cause of that laser beam. I can detect absence of causal connection and know that that was just a coincidence."

"Don't you think that there was too many coincidences? It is just something you can't detect." said Áviya.

"I can detect anything material and nothing ideal can interact with material objects directly. The only explanation is that an entity, that you would call a quantum Laplace's demon, had determined all these events in the past and set up entanglement between certain particles to cause this effects."

"I'm pretty sure I don't need any demons to do magic." said Marisa.

Áviya exploded, "This is a load of bull! Laplace's demon is impossible! The only possible explanation is this is really an ideal magic! .." she paused, as realization dawned on her, "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! This means that Yukari had made this world ideal! "

"Yukari did this? This is boring. Guess, I have to beat her again." And Marisa flew away.

Áviya still remained in shock. "By the nine hells, this is going to end with the damned magic of friendship or I will just disintegrate for no reason... Wait, Yukari couldn't do this with material powers. It looks like she did this and then gave herself her full power retroactively. Damn, then this world isn't just ideal now, it doesn't obey the principle of causality anymore as well." She turned to Anima. "This what happens when someone gives gods too much power."

"Predisposition of biorgs to nonsense is the another sign of their inherent inferiority. The best course of actions for you is to eliminate the force that isolates this part from my influence. I will disable this avatar now," stated Anima and disappeared.

"Fine! If we are going to materialise gods by dozens, I'm going to find Yahweh and kill him at last." Áviya crossed the border and went left along it.

"Oh my, how lucky for me to meet you on my way to the shrine." Áviya saw a woman leaning on the boundary of a gap which was hiding her lower body.

"Isn't it the illusionary being that Anima was talking about," sneered Áviya, "Who, by the nine hells, let you take a perfectly good material world and turn it into ideal?! "

"Calm down, Juana." said Yukari.

Áviya suppressed reflexive reaction and said, "Whoana? "

"This is your name: Juana Lucía Cifra, isn't it? "

"This is the name of the human who became a monster because she was too weak to survive. You still haven't answered me: Who gave you the right to meddle with the fundamental laws?! "

"You should mind your manners talking with an elder being."

"Or what?! You will turn my boundary into a point? I'm a material animal, I don't have a clearly defined boundary! "

"You are underestimating my powers. How about I move your aural pain threshold a little." said Yukari in a quiet but firm tone, however each word sounded to Áviya as if it was tearing her eardrums. She fell on her knees, clutching her ears. Then the sounds returned to normal.

"Well? " asked Yukari.

"I acknowledge that I am inferior to you now." said Áviya hiding the tears of pain.

"You are a prideful one, Juana," said Yukari, "Oh, we are almost near the shrine. Go, introduce yourself to Reimu. I have some things to attend to." And she vanished into a gap.

"As usual with omnipotent beings, nobody have any idea how they get there." said Áviya to the empty space. "Well, I have never burned a Shinto shrine before."

Reimu was drinking tea on the veranda of her shrine. Áviya appeared from around the corner with a strange grin. Reimu noticed her almost immediately.

"Welcome to the Hakurei Shrine. By the way, the donation box is over there" she said. She noticed strange Áviya's attire, "Ah, never mind, you are obviously an outsider."

"I can donate someone's blood," said Áviya, "But what gave me away? Was it my unusual phenotype? "

"Nobody would wear such clothes in the middle of the summer. Did Yukari yanked you from the North Pole or something? "

"It wasn't Yukari. And I can control my heat production so I don't need to use the ineffective human adaptations to heat. Right now, I am closer to early synapsids than mammals in this respect. By the way, Reimu, I am Áviya, the Sorceress of Pestilence."

"You can save the bragging. I can see that you are a human without special powers. And how do you know my name? "

"From the Internet. Also, I am not a human. Just try to attack me."

Reimu didn't even bother to use a spellcard. She just threw several homing danmaku amulets at Áviya. To her surprise, the amulets didn't home and the ones that didn't miss just passed through Áviya.

"Works every time," said Áviya. "I think I am starting to notice a pattern here."

"What are you?! "

"Oh, I am just an animal."

"Just an animal?! Let me show you what I do with crows who steal from my donation box! "

Reimu threw a single paper amulet. Áviya caught it with her right hand.

"Are you seriously trying to use divine power against a material animal? " As soon as she said this amulet exploded. Áviya loudly hissed from pain and clutched the stump. She held it for second and when she unclenched her left hand, all vessels in her right wrist was sealed and the wound was covered by skin.

"How did you do this? " asked Reimu, astonished.

"It's one of my powers: Vicissitude, the fleshcrafting. It's useful if you need stop the bleeding fast. Or start it. The other one is the absorption of disease, which let me to collect all the bacteria that was freed when my hand was destroyed."

Yukari appeared from a gap. "Oh, I see you already met Juana."

"Who? "

"She talks about me." explained Áviya.

"I see. And why does she call you Fuana? How does she even pronounce this?! "

"Apparently, she haven't noticed that I have changed since I was ten years old. I guess thirteen years is hard to notice to someone who is several millennia old."

"Speaking of changes," said Reimu. "Aren't you supposed to be in shock due to a recent one? "

"Actually, shock is caused by the blood loss, not by the pain. And for the pain I have bacteria that can produce local anaesthetics, so it hurts no more than lemon juice."

Suddenly Áviya, who was looking in the direction of the shrine, gasped. She looked around, counted something on her fingers, spread her arms, looked at them and in front of her, scratched her head and said, "This makes no damn sense. I may be wrong but Hakurei shrine is located on the east of Gensoukyou, isn't it? "

"Yes." said Reimu and Yukari.

"Since it was about 16 o'clock when I was in Japan it supposed to be about 9 o'clock here."

"Yes." said Yukari.

"Wait a minute! Are you implying that we aren't in Japan?! " demanded Reimu.

"Because of the certain events," Áviya looked at Yukari, "Gensoukyou has been moved into the Sahara desert."

"To where? "

"The Sahara is the desert in the North Africa."

"And where is this Africa? "

"I guess you can't expect someone who lives in an isolated country to know global geography. Africa is a continent located about a third of equator away from Japan."

"What in the world Gensoukyou is doing there?! "

"Because of the nature of hostile forces Gensoukyou had to be placed somewhere where life is scarce." explained Yukari.

"In other words, where Anima's influence is the weakest." added Áviya.

"Who is this Anima to decide where Gensoukyou is supposed to be? "

"Oh, just a global omnipotent and omniscient alien computer."

"Alien? Those Lunarians are due to the talk with me! "

"No, in this case, it's some other aliens. Extragalactic, to be precise."

"Extragalactic? "

"Let's stop with this before I have to tell you about everything discovered in the last two centuries," said Áviya. "So, if it's supposed to be 9 o'clock here then what in the nine hells the Sun is doing there?! " she pointed to the left of the Hakurei Shrine gates.

Reimu looked at the sun with disbelief. "Yes, what is the Sun doing on the southwest in the morning? " she asked.

"It it nothing serious, the Earth was just rotated about a third of the full revolution almost instantaneously a little time ago. So, technically, it's late afternoon now," said Yukari.

"Nothing serious?! " exclaimed Áviya "What about inertial forces that flung everything into space? I don't feel being in outer space now."

"They was neutralised."

"Was it you or Anima who did this? "

"It wasn't me. I would have just moved boundary between night and day."

"I guess Anima really think that I am going to help her. And also she doesn't want to wait."

"This is an incident! " said Reimu, "Humans will not sleep this night and will be defenceless against youkai."

"Speaking about humans," said Áviya thoughtfully. "I need to take care of my hand. See you later! " She went away from shrine.

"Wait! .." called Reimu after her. Then she reconsidered. "Never mind. Youkai can have her, for all I care."


	5. She knows everyone!

**She knows everyone! **

About three hours later Áviya was completely lost.

"[English]Way to go, Áviya. I even have no idea which forest is this. The Youkai Forest, the Forest of Magic, maybe? I could even be on the Youkai Mountain. Maybe Moriya Shrine is behind that pine." She clutched her stump. "[English]I got to find a new hand before something irreversible happens." She looked behind the pine she mentioned before and licked her teeth. She saw a woman collecting mushrooms. She waved her hand and the woman fell unconscious. "I'm not in the mood to talk to humans." explained Áviya to her. She rolled up the woman's right sleeve and looked at her own stump. "[English]Let's see... A break almost exactly along radiocarpal joint. That'll make this a little easier." She gripped woman's right wrist and detached the hand with sculpting motions. She cleaned her stump. "[English]I need to do this quick." She opened the ulnar artery in her stump and connected to the ulnar artery of the hand. The she did the same with the radial artery and repeated this operation with veins. Then she connected ligaments, tendons and nerves. Then she closed the skin. "[English]Now begins the most unpleasant part of the process: having a human hand for several days." She made a motion from woman to herself. She woke up.

"What happened? " asked woman.

Áviya's grinned, "The Sorceress of Pestilence has infected and cured you. Don't worry, you are going to live." Áviya clutched her right wrist and formed clawed semi-fist out of right hand while still grinning. "Thanks for the hand! " She laughed, scaring the woman almost to death. The anaesthetics wearing off in that exact moment didn't help. The woman screamed.

"I got to admit I'm a little sadistic. At least you know that you are alive." said Áviya. "Well, it doesn't matter to me." she rose up and walked into forest.

It was already dark. Áviya raised her right hand and a glowing ball appeared about a meter ahead of her. Several moths started to circle around it.

"[English]I wonder if insects will follow logarithmic spiral indefinitely or just stop in center after some time. Although, this isn't applicable here. As soon as they enter this aggregation the light will be coming from all directions..."

Áviya musings were interrupted by a particularly large insect. Wriggle attacked the light with all the rage possible for firefly.

"Who made this trap? " she demanded.

"Oh, no. I am being attacked by a real youkai," said Áviya with fake terror and a smile."Let's see if I have any bacteria suitable for insects..."

Wriggle noticed Áviya and moved her antennae. "You aren't human." she said.

"No, but how did you notice? "

"You doesn't smell like human."

"I don't smell like human? .." said Áviya. She slapped her forehead,"Of course! I have no bacteria on my skin to smell like human! I wonder why I haven't thought about this before."

"Who are you then? "

"I'm just an animal. You know, from the other phylum dominating the land besides Arthropoda."

"Who?! "

"You know the clumsy giants that always gets in the way of the insects? I'm one of them."

"Are you a mammal? "

"Yes. I would prefer to be a arachnid or a cephalopod or a bird, but you have to work with what you have."

"I like cephalopods. I don't know what they are, but I have a feeling that they don't eat insects."

"Considering that only mammals had an order named insect-eaters, the other two would still be an improvement for you." Áviya listened. "Speaking about arachnids, do you hear stridulation? "

"Eek! " Wriggle jumped and fell paralysed with fear. Ragna swooped on her from the foliage like a falcon. She pinned her to the ground and begun gnawing on her neck.

"Hey! Are you some king of solifugid youkai? " asked Áviya. But, apparently, Ragna liked Wriggle too much to respond. She reached the jugular vein and sunk her teeth in it drinking haemolymph. She was absorbed in this so much that she didn't reacted when Áviya grabbed her wing.

"[English]How unexpected! A wing with bones... And claws... Wait, this looks like a wing of a pterosaur." She dug deeper. "[English]And it even have its own girdle! I didn't expect to find a youkai who have plausible anatomy. It's almost as if she was designed." She paused. "[English]Of course she was designed! By some ancient storyteller, like every other youkai! " Hit in the chest took her completely by surprise. She fell on her back.

Ragna was floating above her. She wiped her lips and said, "[Swedish]Skit! Varför har jag druckit det? Här är ett lämpligare byte. Åtminstone, hon gör mig inte galen."

"Huh? Aren't youkai supposed to speak Japanese? " Ragna's blood sealed Áviya's mouth preventing her from speaking. Angry growl indicated Áviya's displeasure with such cruelty to the animal. Ragna grabbed her, climbed a tree by floating above branches and flew toward the Misty Lake floating above treetops as if they were solid ground.

It took Ragna only a little more than a minute to reach Koumakan. She glided with the same speed from above trees to the ground on the other side of the gates.

"Hey! Don't ignore me! " called Meiling.

Apparently, Ragna felt that acknowledging a gatekeeper is beneath her, because she hadn't slowed down. She floated to the wall, climbed it by floating above its irregularities and entered the mansion through the window.

"[English]Miss Ragna, why didn't you use a door? " asked Sakuya.

"[English]I'll do it when someone will give me an Ariadne's thread to this labyrinth of a mansion." snarled Ragna. "[English]Now that I've showed you my prey, Mistress, can I go and process her? " she said to Remilia.

"You lost, Patchy! She did catch someone! " said Remilia looking at Áviya.

"She found a human foolish enough to be in the forest after sunset? " said Patchouli. "Besides Reimu and Marisa, I mean."

Áviya's bacteria finally broke down the blood sealing her mouth. She cleaned it with her tongue and said to herself, "[English]How interesting. I can recognise Remilia Scarlet, Patchouli Knowledge and Izayoi Sakuya."

"[Swedish]Hur vågar du ignorera ett furstinna av Sverige! " yelled Ragna at Áviya.

Áviya turned her head to her and said, "[English]Excuse me for not caring how humans call you."

Ragna gasped, "[English]You're her! Áviya, the Living Biobomb! "

"[English]Ow! " said Áviya being dropped on the floor, "[English]Dropping a bomb isn't usually the smartest thing to do. Anyway, what gave me away? My obvious intelligence? "

"[English]Those red hair are pretty unusual."

"[English]You like them? There are bacteria that replace eumelanin with mixture of red pigments in their follicles. They are for aposematism."

"[English]Excuse me." said Patchouli, "[English]The Living Biobomb? "

"[English]Trust humans to come up with tautological title," said Áviya. "[English]It refer to the fact that my death would release several tons of bacteria triggering ecological catastrophe or a plague rivalling the Black Death. Personally, I prefer to be called the Sorceress of Pestilence."

"[English]The Sorceress? " said Ragna with disdain. "[English]You're just a feral animal."

"[English]I've never claimed to be anything more. After all, there isn't anything more powerful than animals," said Áviya with a grin. She looked at Patchouli, "[English]Though, recent materialisation of youkai might have changed this."

"[English]How do you know what will happen when you die? Have you died once already? " asked Patchouli.

"[English]No, I'm trying to be immortal. But that happened on a smaller scale when some sniper shot off my hand. That's why police always trying to catch me using non-lethal methods. They probably aren't using sedatives for the same reason."

"[English]It appears that both your hands are intact. Are you able to regenerate body parts? "

"[English]No, replaced that hand with a one of that sniper. And actually I took this hand," Áviya showed her right hand, "[English]From one of the local humans after Reimu blew mine off."

Remilia laughed.

"Remi, you understood this? " asked Patchouli surprised. "Ah, Sakuya has been translating."

Ragna collapsed. Áviya rushed to her with a little too much enthusiasm.

"I'm a doctor! " she declared cheerfully. "Or at least I know enough medicine to have an M.D. in anatomical pathology."

"Anatomical pathology? " asked Patchouli.

"Yes, I hate healing humans. I don't know much about physiology of youkai, though. Well, nothing can't be solved with vigorous use of empirical methods," said Áviya with a wide grin.

"She isn't youkai." said Patchouli.

"She isn't? Then what is she? "

"She said that she is a vampire. But she looks like she was created with the magic of the Outside World."

"She is one of tainted? But Anima said that I am the only one. Although..." Áviya turned to Ragna. "[English]How long have you been a vampire? "

"[English]For several months." replied Ragna. "[English]You know medicine, right? I'll pay you a fortune for healing me."

"[English]I'll do it just for an opportunity to cut open a vampire! But first I have to determine what precisely are you."

"[English]I'll pay you a fortune if you do it like a surgeon, not a butcher! "

"[English]If you want to bribe me, use something which value doesn't depend on human belief. Plutonium, for example. But I think I can do surgery that is survivable for vampires."

"[English]Reassuring patients obviously isn't one of your skills." said Ragna.

"[English]That's why I'm usually work with corpses. So, what are you? "

"[English]I am a vampire, an abomination created by modifying parasites of genus Plasmodium to be able to infect and kill humans and control their corpses by using their organs."

"[English]It seems there are as much kinds of vampires as there are the vampires themselves." said Áviya. She looked down. "[English]Or rather, one less... Wait, did you say 'created'? "

"[English]I meant that they have evolved from plasmodia."

"[English]'Created' usually means an active creator. How do you know this? " asked Áviya suspiciously.

"[English]Asha told me."

"[English]Asha, the spider goddess, the creator of Ashan? Are you sure it wasn't Anima? "

"[English]Asha is the first vampire! Do you think I would confuse the whole lake of blood with some Freudian symbol?! "

"[English]Jungian, actually. And last time I spoke with Anima, she didn't look like a symbol. Anyway, this doesn't matter now. Let's play doctor. How do you feel? "

"[English]I know that I have seven liters of blood but I feel like I have only one."

"[English]This leaves six liters of something else... Is there any chances that drinking haemolymph has something to do with this? "

"[English]What?! "

"[English]The girl you attacked before grabbing me was an insect. Insect have haemolymph instead of blood."

"[English]What do you mean she was an insect?! Insects don't look like humans! "

"[English]Well, technically she was an firefly youkai and youkai are rarely what they seem to be. Especially shapeshifters like kitsune or chimaeras like nue."

"[English]Am I in some kind of weird African myth? "

"[English]Youkai are from Japanese mythology! Does youkai sounds like African term to you?! "

"[English]Is it really important? "

"[English]Currently it can mean a difference between a weak ideal spirit and a spirit who can tear your entrails out."

"[English]This is very interesting but can we return to matters at hand before I run out of blood? "

"[English]Well, I think you are suffering from low erythrocyte count. You need a simple red blood cell transfusion. How boring." Áviya turned to Remilia, "Milady, do you have concentrated erythrocyte suspension."

"What? "

"I see. Only standard human blood? [English]I need to centrifuge a large amount of blood. If only there was a filter that can separate blood cells from plasma..." Áviya thought a little and a crazy grin formed on her face. "[English]This is going to be fun! " She thought a little more. "[English]No, wait, I will need something like artificial heart for this."

"[English]I use a modified artificial heart for the blood extraction. It's in my room." said Ragna.

"[English]How lucky! Would someone show me where her room is? "

"Sakuya, show her." ordered Remilia.

"Yes, Mistress," replied Sakuya. "This way please."

After some wandering in the interior of Koumakan, Áviya and Sakuya was standing before an open door of a room completely webbed with the strands of blood silk.

"[English]This isn't what I expected from a room of a vampire," said Áviya astonished.

"[English]Yes, this is a little unusual," confirmed Sakuya.

"[English]Well, they isn't sticky." Áviya climbed into room like a spider and returned dragging Ragna's suitcase. "[English]It's heavy."

"[English]Allow me." Sakuya took suitcase from Áviya's hands. "[English]You're exaggerating. It weighs no more that a full suitcase of this size."

"[English]Well, strength isn't primary stat for sorcerers."

They returned back to the room where Ragna was.

"Actually, I need one more thing," said Áviya. "I think I can find it near the Human Village. May I ask Sakuya to help me get here? "

"Well..." said Remilia hesitantly.

"I know the rule: no killing in the Human Village."

Remilia smiled, "I like your argument. Sakuya, see to it."

"Yes, Mistress." Sakuya took Áviya in her arms and flew out of mansion.

They returned after about a half of hour. Áviya jumped onto the floor holding some red things in both of her hands.

"What have your brought? " asked Remilia.

"Kidneys! " said Áviya joyously, demonstrating the organs.

"What? Explain this, Sakuya."

"We had arrived to the place near the Human Village. Áviya ambushed and incapacitated a human. She cut out the organs out of her and left her to bleed to death." said Sakuya.

"And you let this happen?! "

"Of course not. I have collected the blood." said Sakuya producing a jar filled with red liquid.

"Incidentally, I need about six liters of this," said Áviya. "Also a table and a sink for plasma." She opened the Ragna's suitcase. "[English]Excellent, there is enough tubes. Does this machine has enough power? " She looked into battery compartment and found it be empty. "[English]That's strange" She stuck her fingers inside and got shocked. "[English]Ow! Why is there a potential difference without any reason?! Okay, let it be a black box."

She looked up and found everything prepared for the operation. She walked to the table and bared Ragna's chest.

"[English]Aren't you going to wash you hands? " asked Ragna.

"[English]Why bother? All pathogens on my skin are dead anyway. Now, be patient. This is not supposed to hurt a bit."

Áviya pulled Ragna's skin apart with her bare hands uncovering her ribcage. She detached ribs from the sternum and bent them away. Then she removed the sternum.

"It's impressive for human to bend bones so easily." said Remilia.

"I am not a human. And bones are technically flesh. They are malleable in my hands. Oh, I didn't mention to you that I have a power of fleshcrafting? "

Áviya pinched the Ragna's aorta separating it from the heart. She inserted a tube from the Ragna's machine into the aorta. Then she took a bifurcated tube from the suitcase and inserted one end into the aortic valve and the other two into the renal artery and the renal vein of the one of the kidneys. She directed the ureter into sink.

"[English]Now begins the fun part! Just concentrate on keeping concentration of erythrocytes the same in all vessels."

"[Swedish]Dra åt helvete! " growled Ragna through her teeth.

"[English]I am going to do this as soon as I finish my business here," said Áviya with a smile. "[English]Let's see: 180 liters in 24 hours equals 1/8 liters per minute. I think I'll make it 0.26 liters per minute to prevent reabsorption. If it'll explode we always have a spare. Plus, the blood will be everywhere! " she said fiddling with knobs on the machine.

Áviya activated pumping.

"[English]Well, actually this is the boring part. You need much higher speed to get interesting effects."

"[English]Speak for yourself. You're not one who have to deal with the your blood moving by itself."

Áviya put her hand on her chest and listened for a few moments.

"[English]I'm pretty sure my heart is still beating."

After about fifteen minutes six liters of plasma had been moved into the sink. Áviya removed the tubes from Ragna's body and restored her ribcage. As soon as she repaired the skin she found herself pinned to the floor by Ragna, whose dress was already in place.

"[English]Now you will show me proper respect." hissed Ragna.

"[English]Do you know that there are haemolytic bacteria? Streptococcus pyogenes, for example. Want to feel how late stages of septicaemia feel like? " said Áviya with a grin grabbing Ragna's wrist.

Ragna jumped back. Sakuya appeared between her and Áviya catching a blood spear. She tossed it aside and said, "[English]If you want to fight, do it with danmaku."

"[English]How many times do I have to tell that I can't do that stupid illusions?!" said Ragna.

"[English]Don't embarrass yourself by your lack of manners before Mistress." said Sakuya.

"[English]So it's that way with her too..." Áviya bit the kidney thoughtfully and turned to Ragna ."[English]By the way,it looks like owe me a favour for saving your life, [Swedish]'furstinna.' "

"[English]I'm a princess for Americans! "

"[English]What makes you think I'm American? "

"[English]In Sweden we say: 'The one who smiles all the time is either American or crazy.' "

"[English]I'm European! "

"[English]Weren't you denying being human at all some time ago? "

"[English]It just bugs me that people think you can't be crazy without being American."

"[English]Doesn't matter, you're not getting anything."

"[English]Really? You were promising me a fortune before the operation."

"[English]The doctor who works purely out of her sadistic impulses doesn't deserve to be paid."

"[English]Why are you serving Remilia, by the way? "

"[English]Why this question, all of a sudden? I serve her because she defeated me in a fight."

"[English]So, you want serve someone who is stronger than you? "

"[English]No! I just have to serve any vampire who defeated me."

"[English]Makes me want to become a vampire," said Áviya to herself. "[English]Well, this means you are Lawful Evil."

"[English]What does this even means?! "

"[English]It's an alignment. For example, I am Chaotic Neutral. Since you are Lawful, you have to pay everyone what is due to them."

"[English]This would never work in court but I'm feeling generous. What do you want? "

"[English]I want you to ask your mistress to do me a favour."

"[English]What?! "

"Did she seriously said that? " asked Remilia when Sakuya finished translating. She gracefully flew to Áviya.

"So, what do you want to ask for? "

"[Swedish]Tack, Ragna." Áviya turned to Remilia, "I just need Patchouli's magical expertise on question regarding the matters of locomotion."

"Locomotion? Patchy, what does that mean? "

Patchouli floated closer. "That means that she is feeling inadequate not being able to fly."

"You read me like a book." said Áviya.

"There isn't much to read. In any case, flying is simple. You have your own unique powers so it should come naturally, though some could encounter some problems, certain red-white, for example. You just need a right stimulus."

Áviya yawned. "Sorry, my circadian rhythms have just entered the night phase. Can we do this tomorrow morning? "

"Certainly," said Patchouli, "Come into my library when you're ready."

Áviya turned to Remilia. "It might be a little late but may I ask to be your guest? "

"After you butchered Ragna on one of my tables? You are obviously feeling yourself at home, so it's time to remind you what your status is. Sakuya, show her to a guest room! "


	6. She was such a nice girl

**She was such a nice girl.**

Several month ago, in India. Indian house of baron af Rödberg. Ragna was preparing for a walk in a park.

"[Swedish]Don't forget the mosquito repellent," said her mother. "[Swedish]You don't want to be hospitalized with an allergic reaction in the middle of vacation."

"[Swedish]Thanks for reminding, mum," said Ragna. "[Swedish]I'm glad I've managed to recover from the flu in time for this vacation."

"[Swedish]I'm still not sure it was wise to go India for a vacation considering your health. Especially immediately after this illness."

"[Swedish]Come on, mum. I've been vaccinated. And we've already been in every exotic country with healthy climate."

Baron af Rödberg entered with his butler. They were discussing something.

"[Swedish]Help me decide, Walter, which of this hospitals should receive money we've collected."

"[Swedish]As far as I know, master, Kungsbotelj is fairly large and extra funding will increase their efficiency, but Alfstand have small capacity because they are concentrated on research, extra funding will increase efficiency of all hospitals in Sweden, though not immediately. In the long run funding Alfstand will do more good."

"[Swedish]I haven't thought of this," said Baron. "[Swedish]Oh, good day, dears. Going somewhere, Ragna? "

"[Swedish]Good day, miladies." said Walter.

"[Swedish]I'm going for a walk in a park," said Ragna. She walked to the door. "[Swedish]I love you, mum and dad! See you later! "

It was the dawn of the next day. Baron and baroness af Rödberg spent the night worrying about their missing daughter. They was sitting in the hall, baroness was crying and baron was trying to comfort her. Suddenly, Ragna flew in slamming the door open and dodging sunbeams.

"[Swedish]Where have you been the whole night?! " cried the baroness. "[Swedish]And why you have wings now?! And who dyed your hair?! "

Ragna smiled licking her teeth. "[Swedish]Ragna was bitten by a mosquito. And now I'm hungry." She grabbed an ornamental dagger and slashed the throats of Ragna's parents with the superhuman speed. The blood flowed. Ragna started to lap it with inhuman insatiability. She slowed down after absorbing about five liters. Walter entered in this moment. Ragna spun to face him.

Walter took one look at the bodies. He said "[Swedish]You can relax, mistress. You have already inherited my services."

"[Swedish]I'm not the Ragna you think I am. I am a vampire who killed her and took her body, her memories, her name and her possessions."

"[Swedish]In this case you are her rightful heir."

"[Swedish]So, you will be loyal to me? "

"[Swedish]Until your death."

"[Swedish]Then, let's get to business. First, we need to get out of this backward country."

"[Swedish]I will order the plane tickets."

"[Swedish]Good. Second, as a vampire, I need steady supply of blood. Can I get it through my charity fund? It's mine now, isn't it? "

"[Swedish]Yes. I know some people who can arrange this. I call them as soon as possible. Will you approve illegal methods? "

"[Swedish]As long as it isn't creating problems for me."

"[Swedish]Yes, mistress, Walter paused. "[Swedish]Mistress, you can't leave the bodies like this. This will create problems later.

"[Swedish]What do you suggest? "

"[Swedish]I suggest you call the police and register their death."

"[Swedish]Hmm..." said Ragna. "[Swedish]How susceptible the local police to charity, you think?"

"[Swedish]I think they tend to have favourable opinion on charitable people."

"[Swedish]That's fortunate. I'll deal with police, meanwhile call that people you mentioned and order tickets," said Ragna taking her cellphone out of her pocket.

"[Swedish]As you wish." said Walter and left the hall.

A constable arrived after about half an hour. Ragna put on sad expression and opened the door.

"[English]Good morning, ma'am. I'm constable Lookout. Lady af Rödberg, I presume? "

"[English]Actually, it's baroness af Rödberg, since this morning," said Ragna. Then she remembered how she was supposed to feel. "[English]My parents was killed by a tiger! " she cried.

"[English]I'm sorry. Is that their bodies over there? "

"[English]Yes! I had to drag them all the way from the forest! " said Ragna pretending to sob.

"[English]Which forest? "

"[English]I don't know how it's called! The one with palms and mangoes! "

"[English]They don't looked mauled. And if you dragged them from their then where is the blood trail? "

Ragna calmed down suddenly. "[English]You know, my family works with charity. I would like to donate a thousand euro to local police force to improve your efficiency," she said with an emphasis on 'local' showing two purple banknotes.

The constable took the banknotes. "[English]So, the cause of death is an attack by a tiger? Then there is no need to involve medical examiner in this. I'll make sure that you will get death certificates without problems."

"[English]I need them by tomorrow."

"[English]Don't worry. You donation was very helpful."

When bodies was taken away, Walter appeared again.

"[Swedish]I made the arrangements. When we'll arrive in Stockholm, there will be a meeting concerning new policy of the fund."

"[Swedish]Good," said Ragna. "[Swedish]By the way, did I understood that correctly that donation to Kungsbotelj will be much better for my public image than donation to Alfstand? "

"[Swedish]Yes. They might even be persuaded to find some blood they don't need."

Ragna licked her lips. "[Swedish]Excellent. Then see to it. Your services are invaluable for the Swedish Empire, Walter"


	7. May I get some spikes with this?

**May I get some spikes with this? **

Back to present, next morning, Koumakan. Áviya woke up. She got out of the bed and got dressed.

"[English]I like this mansion. Usually I have to kill every human in general vicinity to be able to sleep without being disturbed."

"So, are you oneechan's newest servant? "

"No," said Áviya. Then she processed who she was looking at and tried to hide.

Flandre smiled and closed her right fist. When nothing extraordinary happened, she looked at it surprised. Apparently this had scared her a little. She grabbed Laevateinn with both hand and swung the giant sword at Áviya.

Sakuya held her wrist.

"Young mistress, she is a guest."

"But she doesn't have the 'eye'! "

"Young milady, I'm assure you that there is no reasons for you to be scared of me," said Áviya. She plucked one of her hairs and touched Laevateinn with it. The hair was annihilated. "Interesting. This sword can destroy purely material objects. What principle does work on? "

"Patchy says that it is made out of destruction itself! " said Flandre cheerfully.

"I believe she didn't put that quite like this..." said Sakuya.

"Speaking about her, how can I get to the library at this library at this hour? " said Áviya. "Or at three o'clock in the morning, maybe," she added.

"Follow me," said Sakuya. "Wouldn't you like to have breakfast first? "

Áviya chuckled. "When I'm hungry, I just move some bacteria into my stomach. Eating is mostly a waste of time."

"As you wish. This way, please."

"What's so special about three o'clock in the morning? " asked Flandre, who was floating a little behind Áviya.

"It's a traditional time to apply chloroform to warehouse guards." said Áviya.

Sakuya pushed open large doors. "Lady Patchouli, Áviya is here to see you."

Áviya entered without waiting for invitation. "So, where is the equipment that is supposed to make me fly? "

"It isn't that complicated," said Patchouli. "Just look up."

Áviya looked and gasped. "This library is really large. I can't even see the ceiling. This means it's at least... What the hell?! " she yelled falling down the hole that opened under feet.

"You were supposed to float." said Patchouli.

Áviya climbed out of the hole. "How?! It's kinda hard to float near this enormous rock," she said, pointing down.

"What rock? " asked Flandre.

"She means the Earth," said Patchouli. "I noticed that you are interacting with elemental energy in a manner similar to Ragna's but since she is able to float, I thought that this wouldn't be a problem. It seems that you are unable to fly under your own power."

"Can't you make a magical implant for this purpose? "

"Your brain can't interact with elemental energy. You will have control it manually."

"We can implant them into my back near the lumbar region of my vertebral column and connect some spare nerves to them! " said Áviya enthusiastically.

"Then they will have to deform together with the surrounding tissues."

"What if they are implanted into bones? The sternum and the upper part of scapula isn't covered in muscles. Let me look up appropriate nerves." Áviya pulled a laptop from her backpack and turned it on. Noticing curious looks, she said, "May I not explain what this is? I would have to tell about almost everything invented in twentieth century." She clicked a few times. "Strange. Lately, every computer with unoccupied Ethernet port had connection to Internet. Well, I guess that was set up by Anima"

"Who is Anima? " asked Patchouli.

"She is information-based extragalactic being who enveloped the whole Earth and therefore achieved limited omnipotence and omniscience. However, because of some factors, namely, a certain gap youkai, she can't influence Gensoukyou directly."

"I will look into this. Now, what about that nerves? "

"There probably aren't any. It was rather stupid to assume that human body has nerves that aren't used. I might sacrifice some afferent neurons, but they obviously kinda work in opposite direction."

"There might be another way," said Patchouli. "Can you control bacteria subconsciously? "

Áviya laughed. "I like how you think. We will need three thin hollow tube divided into five section and controlled by pH inside each section."

"You think you will be able to control such a complicated system? "

"Adaptation is going to take some time, but I don't think that it will harder than playing violin."

"You can play violin? "

"Of course, not. I don't have absolute pitch."

"So, what material will it be? Gold? You seem to be too arrogant for any other metals."

"Gold?! It's too heavy and soft and also useless. Titanium is much lighter and stronger, biologically inactive and resistant to corrosion. Though, I'm not sure how resistant it is to basic solution. Can you enchant it against corrosion? "

"Obviously," said Patchouli. "Would your like to order anything else? "

"Oh, sorry, Patchouli. I'm just haven't adjusted to interacting with youkai yet. I didn't mean to demand anything from you."

"Good, because you're already going to owe me about 500 gram of titanium. Now, if you don't have any objections, I'm going to start the procedure."  
A few hours later the operation was nearly finished. Áviya was finishing restoring integrity of her skin. Then she put her clothes back on.

"I'm ready for activation," she said.

Patchouli waved her hand and Áviya tripped. Then she stood up and slowly floated into random direction, then into another one.

"This will take some practice," said Áviya with a grin.

"I have bred a strain that functions like the switch," declared Áviya an hour later. "They exhibit a hysteresis in reaction to my signals to them. Look, now I am under influence of gravity." She hopped a few times. "And now... ." She suddenly shot upward and disappeared from view.

"I've found the ceiling! " came her voice from above. "Actually, I was supposed to just float but I accidentally accelerated in vertical direction," she added. "I'm coming down! "

A second later, Áviya showed up descending at a steep angle. Just before she crashed into bookshelf, she inelastically bounced from elastic membrane that appeared suddenly before her and came to rest about twenty centimeters from it. She looked around and found herself in a giant bubble.

"Come on! " she demanded. "Where is the conservation of energy? "

"Do you prefer to bounce there without control? " asked Patchouli.

"No, but I can't adapt without negative reinforcement. Maybe some spikes would be useful."

"Metal spikes will overload the bubble and crystal spiked will disrupt it. Besides, do you want more holes in your body? "

"Yes, this would be inconvenient... ," said Áviya, thoughtfully. "But electricity is Wood, right? "

"Yes. Do you seriously want to bounce inside electrified bubble? Are you masochistic or what? "

"No, I'm just sadistic toward my human body."

"Okay, have fun."

Electric sparks appeared on the surface of the bubble. Áviya started to move. After each collision her insane laughter became louder and louder.

"You're crazy," said Patchouli. "I'm seriously considering not letting your out when you're finished."

"Would you prefer me to scream? " asked Áviya.

"No."

"Me too."

**Elsewhere:**

"Please, Youmu-san. I need someone to help me overcome my fear of spiders."

**End of elsewhere**


	8. Introduction to the afterlife

**Introduction to the afterlife.**

In the late afternoon Orin and Sexta was wandering somewhere near base of Youkai Mountain.

"Still, Sexta, how have you found Okuu's reactor? " asked Orin.

"[Latino]Proserpina led me to it."

"Proserpina? Are you sure? "

"[Latino]I knew that it was her because she wore orange and green and had a black hat like a large dinner plate! "

"Is this how she usually dresses? "

"[Latino]Of course not! She wears a white toga." said Sexta with certainty

Orin stared at her. "White? Not orange or green? "

"[Latino]Green is a colour of Mars and orange is daemonic colour. No one loyal to Ceres would wear orange."

"Are you even listening to what you are saying?! You just said that you recognised Proserpina because she was wearing green and orange and that she would never wear them."

"[Latino]The Goddess moves in mysterious ways."

"Have your goddess ever considered making sense? "

"[Latino]She already made all the sense."

"It shows. Why are you even following her? "

"[Latino]Because if I will be loyal to her and die when I'm supposed to, I will live in the court of Mars."

"And if you won't? "

"[Latino]Followers of Ceres live in the realm of Pluto after their death and sinners end up in the Fire Plains of Vulcanus where they are tortured into his servants, unless they are killed by a servant of Ceres. Then they are allowed into the realm of Pluto."

"And why will you go to the court of Mars instead? "

"[Latino]Because I am a servant of Ceres. They go to the court of Ceres after their death and Chosen of lemures are also allowed into courts of their patrons," explained Sexta."[Latino]So, if you not going to follow Ceres, I'll have to kill you."

"And what have I got to do with all this? If I die, I'm just going to be reborn! "

"[Latino]You think so because you don't believe in the truth."

"Let's do it like this: if you win, I'll believe in your Ceres but if I win, you'll help me break into the temple's graveyard. Agreed? "

"[Latino]Win what? "

"The fight, of course! Do you really think that you can kill me without a fight? "

"[Latino]The power of Mars flows in my veins and Ceres is on my side. You cannot hope to defeat me."

"You've already lost to Okuu once. So, do you agree to our bet? "

"[Latino]Yes. I swear by an arrow of Diana piercing the throat of Minerva."

"Alright. Dodge this! " Orin's claws scraped Sexta's throat without even leaving marks. Sexta leaped at Orin and knocked her to the ground, but Orin kicked her away.

"Come on! Can't you hit harder than human?! " she demanded.

"[Latino]No, I usually just rip my enemies apart. Just let me embrace you and Pluto will welcome you." replied Sexta. She leaped again flailing her arms but Orin easily dodged her with needlessly elaborated pirouettes.

"And you're slow too! I expected more from the 'Chosen of Mars! ' It seems that he didn't have much choice! "

Sexta growled in rage. Grass started to burn under feet.

"This looks interesting. Can I join? " innocently asked figure wearing orange and green. "You are forgetting to breathe," she said to Sexta.

Sexta stopped, clawed at her throat and fell. Blood flowed from her throat as she was lying on grass and tearing her trachea open and her diaphragm and ribs wasn't moving.

"This is boring now." said the figure.

"What in the world just happened?! " asked Orin, who didn't notice the interference. "Stop this games, Sexta! Satori-sama won't like this if you die like this! " She rushed in random directions. "What should I do? What should I do? " She sniffed. "Aha! That smells somewhat like Sexta. Maybe she would know what to do." She flew away as fast as she could.

Áviya was enjoying her newfound method of locomotion immensely. She danced in the air, traced every curve she could think about and generally imagined herself an evil demoness.

"Hey, you! The one without a corpse! " shouted Orin.

Áviya sighed theatrically. "I just can't catch a break. I've just dumped a corpse and it's already became my defining characteristic." She glanced at Orin. "Well, if it isn't my favourite kasha. I guess Orin's wheelbarrow transport has finally came after me."

"What? Who are you and how do you know my name? Are you even being serious? "

"I am Áviya, the Sorceress of Pestilence. So, Orin, is there any problem that caused your to appear so suddenly? "

"Well, there is one girl that smells kinda like you and something weird is happening to her! "

"What do you mean by 'smells kinda like me'? "

"I can smell a corpse of every human, youkai or god. But you two are different."

"Okay, show me the patient! "

Suddenly, Áviya found herself in Orin's wheelbarrow carted away at high speed.

"Here she is! " declared Orin after a few minutes.

"What... the... hell... is... this? " said Áviya. "Are you sure she isn't youkai? "

"Yes. An evil spirit can't even control her."

"Okay. Let's see." Áviya kneeled over Sexta. "Green skin covered in scutes... , hands deformed into something resembling cat's paw... , legs of an organism properly adapted to bipedal locomotion... . Could you open your mouth for a second, Orin? Yes, she has carnivoran's teeth somehow adapted to human mouth, like yours... . Also, she has tail and horns. In general, I would say that she looks like a succubus. Maybe she is one of this half-demons who Anima mentioned."

"A half-devil? She said that she is a half-daemon."

"Anima probably had a broken mental phone," said Áviya. "So, how the hell she is still alive if she is bleeding and isn't breathing? " She paused. "I want her body."

"You can take her if she'll survive this."

"What? No, I don't want her, I want body like hers: the one able to survive such wounds. Anyway, the problem is, probably, that her respiratory center isn't working. I think a hard reboot would fix it." She handed Orin her knife. "You have to stab her upward into foramen magnum."

"Into what? And why me? "

"Foramen magnum is the large opening in the skull through which brain stem exits it. There are vertebrae in the way and my strength isn't enough."

Orin turned Sexta on her stomach and lifted the knife. Then she sighed and handed it back to Áviya. "It's no use. Her skin is too tough even for me."

"Seriously? " Áviya slashed Sexta across the neck. She studied the absence of results. "Well, I suppose it's normal for such skin." She took her backpack and produced an object resembling a handgun made out of plastic containers. "Let me try this! " She aimed and a blue dot appeared on the back of Sexta's head. "[Latin]Radius finalis! " declared Áviya and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Is it broken? " asked Orin.

"You can check. There is an invisible beam emanating from the muzzle."

Orin stuck her finger in the beam and immediately jerked it away."Ouch! It's hot!"

"Of course. It's an industrial infrared laser. It's powerful enough to cut steel plates." said Áviya. "And yet this pathetic excuse for a succubus refuses to be damaged by it! " Enraged she pulled a random item from her pocket and stabbed Sexta with it. It sank into her flesh. Multiple bleeding wounds opened on Sexta's body.

"What in the nine hells... ?! " said Áviya astonished. She looked at the item. "Oh, this is a delirium shard." Her grin grew wider. "Orin, would you like to act a control group? Just give me your hand."

Áviya grabbed Orin's hand and pricked her finger with the shard. It didn't even pierced her skin.

"You can't hurt a youkai just with some crystal." said Orin.

"Interesting... . This shows that there is definitely a connection between her and Anima."

"Who is this Anima, anyway? "

"Well, she is... . Um..." Áviya paused for some time. "To put it simply she is the mind of the Earth. But she isn't a youkai, a spirit or a god."

"How is this possible? "

"Look, I can't explain it to you. She is too different from everything in Gensoukyou." said Áviya. "Let's return to our operation." She stabbed Sexta into back of her head. More wounds had opened and Sexta stopped moving. Áviya thoroughly scrambled Sexta's medula oblongata and pulled what had been left of delirium shard out.

"Huh? It melted? Hold her. I'm not sure that she won't start decapitating everybody when she'll finish regenerating."

"She isn't strong enough to decapitate anyone."

"She is able to move with the skin more durable than steel. Also, I burned my fingers with her blood and it's both chemical and thermal burn. So I won't say that she doesn't have any more surprises."

Sexta coughed violently and spat out a clot of her blood. She inhaled and said, "[Latino]Facinore de Iovis! Me fui amitto! Cerere mei fueram desero?! "

Áviya's mouth fell open. "What the hell is this language? My first language may have evolved from something like this but I have no idea what she is saying."

"She is wondering why she had lost." said Orin. "I think we could call that a draw." she said to Sexta.

"You can understand her? What did she said exactly? "

"I hear her like she is talking in Japanese and she understands me somehow. She said: 'Jupiter's deed! I have lost! Had Ceres abandoned me?! ' "

"Ceres? What a fertility goddess has to do with that? " said Áviya. She turned to Sexta and said, "[Castillian]You was incapacitated because someone unscrewed up your respiratory center. Did you understand this or do I have to switch to Catalan? "

"[Latino]Do not blaspheme! I don't understand what you saying but I won't let you say the name of the Goddess in such mocking tone."

"Did you said something about blasphemy? Blasphemy is fun! "

"She doesn't like your disrespect toward her goddess." said Orin.

"It figures. By the way, she was talking about losing something. What were you doing? "

"We was fighting because she said that I will go to some bad place after my death if she doesn't kill me."

"Great. I had found a demoness and she turned to be a religious idiot."

"Yes, she is little obsessed with her goddess. Let's go home, Sexta," said Orin. "Um, would you like to visit Satori-sama? "

"Of course... . I mean I have to go! " said Áviya and hurriedly flew away.

After flying out of sight Áviya stopped.

"[English]Damn it, Áviya are you afraid of having your mind read? " she said.

"[English]Of course I am."

"[English]Especially if a wrong thought is going to be associated with being in the middle of thermonuclear explosion."

"[English]I want to see how Orin's tails are connected to her spine."

"[English]Are you thinking that you are crazier than Marisa? "

"[English]I want to dissect Utsuho's wing joints."

"[English]You are just a weak human."

"[English]You cannot hope to ascend to youkai level."

"[English]I want Sexta's body."

"[English]Utsuho..."

"[English]You are going to die.

"[English]I want her power."

"[English]And then there's going to be next mass extinction."

"[English]And then the Sun going to dehydrate the Biosphere."

"[English]Destroy everything! "

"[English]I am an immortal monster! "

"[English]Kill the human! "

"[English]The Biosphere will survive! "

"[English]That dumb computer doesn't know what she up against! "

"[English]Gods are nothing compared to metazoa! "

"[English]Give me my power! "

"[English]By the nine hells, would you kindly pay attention to the current events!"

"[English]Shut up, Áviya. Stop talking to yourself. It's already almost dark and still have to find a safe place to sleep. This isn't some human city. Youkai are going to digest you with all your bacteria and feral ones will not worry about some harmless pandemic."


	9. Neutron bomb is too ineffective

**Neutron bomb is too ineffective for my purposes.**

Next morning Marisa woke up from the loud banging on her door.

"Marisa, if you won't open, I'll blow up you door, or else you will die! " called Alice.

Marisa stumbled to the entrance of her house rubbing her eyes and pushed the door open. "What's the matter, Alice," she said yawning. "You know that I'm sleepy until the afternoon since yesterday for some reason."

"There isn't time for this! Do you remember the spell you were using for protection while fighting the Hell Raven? Cast it and maintain it until there is only one sun in the skies! "

"There is another sun there? " wondered Marisa sleepily.

"Shut up and do it now if you want to live! "

**Elsewhere:**

"[English]What the hell is with this second sun?! And why is it moving?! Isn't it supposed to be far enough for its angular speed to be negligible? " said Áviya

**End of elsewhere**

"Stop this commotion, Suika! " demanded Reimu. "I can't sleep with all this noise! "

"Yukari said that I should collect lots of lead on your roof. She promised to bring me a wine cellar from the Outside World."

"That's it! I'm going outside to shove you into your own gourd! "

Reimu stepped through the entrance and found herself back in her bedroom.

"Now, now, Reimu, it's for your own good." said Yukari.

"Keeping me inside my shrine is for my own good?! "

"It's not safe for humans outside."

"Humans are in danger and you are telling me to stay here?! Are you crazy or are you planning something?! "

"This is not youkai's doing. You can't do anything about it. Just relax and let gods handle this."

**Elsewhere:**

Chen took dough figurine of cat soaked in ink and pulled the ink out of it with a movement of her hand. Immediately the ill cat that was lying on her lap sprang to his feet and started to wash himself.

"Next... ." said Chen wearily and grabbed another portion of dough. "Don't worry, little ones, I'm sure Lady Yukari wouldn't let you suffer without a reason."

**End of elsewhere**

Patchouli finished working on the newest magical book when she felt a specific magical signature to move into the library.

"Would you mind telling why Sakuya haven't stopped you? " she said.

"If you are talking to Áviya then she is unconscious." said Sakuya. "How did you know that she is here? "

"She didn't question my willingness to help her so I was able add extra enchantments into her implant."

"Damn," said Áviya opening her eyes. "I suppose protection against radiation wasn't among them? "

"You aren't going to ask to remove them? " said Patchouli.

"I don't think that you are a sort of youkai to use your power for something stupid."

"Ahem, miss Áviya," said Sakuya. "Maybe you would find another place to lie? Holding you isn't part of my job."

Áviya jumped into air, tumbled and fell on the floor.

"Ouch. Yes, it's definitely radiation poisoning. I got all the classical symptoms: nausea, fatigue, fever, headache and feeling stupid."

"Almost any illness has these symptoms." said Patchouli.

"Yes but in my case only radiation or poison could be the cause and I'm pretty sure that wasn't poisoned lately."

"So... radiation... ," Patchouli looked into the book. " 'Radiation (hou-sha, English: radiation) means the process of emission of particle rays (alpha rays, beta rays, etc.), electromagnetic waves (including light and heat), gravitational waves and other objects as well as emitted entities themselves...' "

"You have a book on radiation? "

"No. You have mentioned an information field outside of Gensoukyou yesterday and I've made a magical book to access it."

"You've made a book with access to the Internet?! That's impo... , inco... , unbelievable! For the lack of better word."

"Are you going to just lie here on the floor? "

"Maybe I'm only lying here because I lack the strength to stand."

"Are you expecting me to heal you? "

"Well, I'm also going to need something to protect me against radiation. Or else it will start all over again as soon as I'll go outside."

"You're annoying. Yesterday's problem was somewhat interesting but now you are just distracting me from my books," said Patchouli. "I think a Royal Flare will take care both of you and your bacterium problem. Sakuya, evacuate the library and seal it."

"But... . I mean... . I..." was all that Áviya managed to say.

"Sakuya, what's the deal with that second sun?" asked Remilia entering.

"You shouldn't be here, Mistress," said Sakuya. "Lady Patchouli is going to destroy a particularly toxic rat."

"You are already killing Áviya, Patchy? " said Remilia. "Maybe you would let Flan play with her instead? "

"Flan will kill her without any precautions and that could cause spreading of bacteria among animals and humans of Gensoukyou, which can go out of control," said Patchouli.

"Actually, I don't see what's the problem with something going out of control if I going to be dead anyway," said Áviya. "By the way, Patchouli, don't you want to find out why danmaku doesn't affect me? " she said desperately.

"I already had formulated a hypothesis yesterday. I went outside this night and the Princess of Netherworld confirmed it," said Patchouli.

"So? " said Áviya

"You might not know it but every object possesses a spirit. In fact, this spirit is a real identity of an object and what perceived by humans is no more than a vessel," said Patchouli

"Well, this is the basics of Shinto, I think," said Áviya

"So, the Outside World had, presumably, the same system," said Patchouli.

"Had? " said Remilia.

"Few days ago Gensoukyou was transported into another world similar to the Outside World," said Patchouli.

"The Black World," said Áviya grinning.

"Why Black? " asked Patchouli.

"Because it isn't enlightened by the white light of gods but instead by full electromagnetic spectrum of science," said Áviya.

Patchouli sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, for some reason there is no spirits in the Black World. It's a world completely made up of empty vessels."

"Are you saying that I don't have a soul? " said Áviya.

"Someone religious would say that," said Patchouli.

"Yes! I was right! " said Áviya.

"What are so happy about? If you die you will cease to exist, you know," said Patchouli.

"I prefer having a reason to seek immortality to being stuck in some boring heaven," said Áviya.

"You think that you will end up in a heaven? " said Patchouli sceptically

"It is the worst case scenario," said Áviya.

Remilia took a little step back. "Does she really lack a soul, Patchy? This is a little creepy. She would be just an empty shell without a soul."

Áviya's grin widened. "Yes, I am an empty shell. Are you wondering what makes me tick? Just milliards of years of evolution during which everyone who didn't survive died."

"Well, now I'm wondering what your blood tastes like," said Remilia.

"My studies showed that it tastes quite similar to the human blood," said Áviya.

"I wouldn't recommend drinking her blood right now," said Patchouli. "There is too many toxins there."

"By the way, Patchy, how long is she going to lie here? " said Remilia.

"Until removed," said Patchouli.

"I will remove myself! " said Áviya. "I just have that little problem with radiation."

"Alright, I'll help you but next time you going to bother me you'll only find rat poison," said Patchouli. "I will need some time to work on this." She turned to the book and whispered something.

"Why have I came here? " said Remilia to herself. "Ah! Sakuya! "

"Yes, Mistress? " said Sakuya.

"About that second sun," said Remilia. "Destroy it."

"As you wish." said Sakuya.

She appeared a minute later with her headband missing. "Forgive me, Mistress," she said. "I almost got incinerated before even getting close to it."

"She is right," said Patchouli. "That thing seems to radiate large amount of energy but, fortunately, it's far enough to not fry everything in Gensoukyou."

"How far? " said Áviya. "Wait, are you able see it? "

"This is just a simple farseeing." said Patchouli. "The object seems to be well outside of Gensoukyou. It has paraboloid shape and seems to irradiate exclusively Gensoukyou. By the way, the Goddess of the Mountain is already trying to destroy it."

"Trying? " said Áviya. "What it's made of if Kanako can't destroy it? "

"It seems that she is busy maintaining some kind of atmospheric disturbance above the Human Village. Also, she is fighting someone. Short figure, purple hair, brown eyes, glasses, dressed somewhat similar to the Moon Rabbit of Eientei."

"It's Anima." said Áviya. "Or rather, her avatar, because Anima herself looks like a giant green sphere. Or maybe it's real Yuki if Anima decided that doesn't have enough omnipotent people."

Patchouli turned a few pages. "Nagato Yuki? "

"Yes." said Áviya.

"She looks close enough." said Patchouli.

"You heard that, Sakuya? " said Remilia. "You also have to kill that Yuki person."

"Anima," said Áviya. "And I think that she is impossible to kill unless the whole Earth or the whole Biosphere is destroyed."

"What is she? " said Remilia. "A god? "

Áviya sighed. "Here we go again. She is omnipotent and omniscient machine that enveloped the whole Earth except Gensoukyou."

"Just a machine? " said Remilia. "I can easily turn a machine into a pile of scrap!"

"Remi," said Patchouli patiently, "Which part of 'omnipotent, omniscient, astronomically large being' did you miss? "

"She does have a point, though," said Áviya. "No matter how powerful she is, Anima is still just a dumb computer."

"Just how dumb she is, really? " said Patchouli. "She had set up a radiation source calibrated precisely to kill every human in Gensoukyou and leave everything else more or less intact."

"As one wizard said: 'It isn't easy but it isn't complicated.' " said Áviya. "For a computer, anyway."

"I know! " said Remilia. "We're going to destroy that fake sun after sunset."

"Even if it going to set, it's going be hard to find," said Patchouli. "But there seems to be no reasons for it to do that. It's probably going to be as bright at night. By the way, it's ready." She floated to Áviya and placed a small seed between her clavicles. Immediately it sprouted four roots and disappeared under Áviya's clothing.

"Where did it go? " said Áviya.

"It's going to take root above your heart. It needs a little of your blood to keep protection spell active," said Patchouli. "Don't worry, it's not going to hurt a bit."

Áviya screamed from excruciating pain.

"Ah, it's working." said Patchouli.

Áviya's grin widened. "Your statement was remarkably accurate." She inhaled and exhaled a few timed. "It feels like an organic part of me."

"Now to repair the damage," said Patchouli. She muttered something and green light shined from her hand on Áviya. After several minutes of illumination Áviya sat up.

"That was disappointingly clean," she said.

"I can cauterise your wounds, if you want," said Patchouli demonstrating an orb of fire.

"But I don't have any wounds... ," said Áviya. Then she noticed Patchouli's stare. "Oh... . I'm going to remove myself now." she said quickly.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard. Sakuya disappeared and appeared with Flandre in her arms.

"Young Mistress, You shouldn't be on the roof during the day."

"What have you done?! " said Remilia.

Flandre smiled. "I was passing by and heard you talking about destroying a sun. So I went and destroyed it."

"Do you have any idea how complicated it is?! You cannot just destroy it! " said Remilia.

"It isn't complicated at all. I just squeezed its 'eye' and it went 'boom.' You just making it up to be so, as always." said Flandre.

"Um, I have a question," said Áviya. "How could Flandre destroy the fake sun if it's obviously an object of the Black World? "

"I think it's either because it was crafted after Gensoukyou was transported here or because influence of Gensoukyou is spreading." said Patchouli.

"I see," said Áviya. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to go find someone who can perform psycheectomy."

"Don't be stupid," said Patchouli. "If didn't get soul from your parents during conception, you're going to die without one."

"That's good," said Áviya. "Also, are we sure that Flandre destroyed the right sun?"

"The 'eye' of real Sun wouldn't fit in my hand," said Flandre.

"I think I'll go check, anyway," said Áviya and flew out of the window.

**Elsewhere:**

"[Swedish]Håkan, go to Africa. There your useless maxillae will fit right in. Find some new territory for our clan."

**End of elsewhere**

Áviya flew to the edge of Gensoukyou.

"Anima! " she demanded. "What the hell was with that electromagnetic flood?! "

Anima appeared out of nowhere.

"I had reasons to assume that this anomaly is caused by the presence of biorgs. I attempted to destroy them all remotely." she said.

"Let me guess: it didn't work," said Áviya.

"Source of radiation had disintegrated on sub-elemental level without any cause."

"Without any cause?! Let me enlighten you: some 'insignificant' vampire named Flandre Scarlet destroyed it. She has a power to destroy absolutely everything."

"Flandre Scarlet is just an ordinary human. What you perceive is an illusion."

"An ordinary human?! What about Kanako who was able to fight you? "

"She is entirely illusional. Her apparent attacks just coincided with some material effects."

"Okay, if you're so stubborn. What about Orin then, for example? "

"An ordinary cat."

"Satori? "

"A corpse."

"A corpse?! "

"Yes."

"I think I can see a pattern here. Let me check something. Reisen and Meiling? "

"Humans."

"Your perception is typical for computer: accurate and completely wrong. Look, I am flying right before you! I don't have to look up your skirt anymore! Doesn't this make you think that you can't detect something important? "

"The fact that you are flying indicates that you exhibit typical for biorgs pattern of thinking: assuming that long chain of coincidences will continue indefinitely."

"It continues since yesterday morning. Any scientist would admit that there is some unknown force at work."

"My perception isn't flawed. If there were some unknown force, I would perceive it indirectly."

"I didn't expect anything else from a computer. To hell with this topic," said Áviya. "By the way, I think that I found one of your half-demons."

"Sexta," stated Anima.

"From your description I expected something close to succubus but what I've met was a damned juggernaut that just looks like a succubus! Is she absolutely invincible? "

"No."

"I walked right into this, did I? Is it possible to damage her with something less powerful than a nuclear bomb and without delirium? By the way, is she allergic to it or what? "

"No and no. Her reaction to delirium is the common weakness of abominations."

"Abominations? "

"While the tainted are normal members of their species with some abnormal abilities granted by delirium AI, the abominations are the subspecies for which delirium is an integral part of their biochemistry. They can't be tainted naturally. I have created several subspecies of abominations but they are supposed to be a result of evolution in the presence of delirium."

"So, there is half-demons and vampires, if Ragna wasn't mistaken. Anyone else? "

"Your knowledge about other subspecies of abominations can affect the result of an experiment."

"In other words, you aren't going to tell me. Is it psychological experiment or something? "

"No, but your unpredictability is a problem. There is a hypothesis that your brain is damaged."

"It seems nothing good going to come out of this either," said Áviya. "Ah! About half-demons. Whose bright idea was to set loose a bunch of invincible animals in the Central Africa?! It could become an ecological disaster! Even humans, however weak they are, are destroying everything with their overpopulation! "

"Half-demons has a mechanism to control their population. In an individual oestrus is triggered if and only if she kills another half-demon and pregnancy very rarely results in more than one offspring."

"They aren't oviparous? Why didn't you correct that stupid flaw? "

"It isn't a flaw. It's in the nature of biorgs to eat each other."

"Well, yes... . But only an idiot would voluntarily let a parasite live inside her body."

"You called Sexta an idiot yesterday."

"It was besause she was spouting that religious nonsense. Is every half-demon like her?! "

"No, she is an exception. She was raised by humans. Usually half-demons are abandoned shortly after their birth and never learn to speak."

"Interesting. Tell me more."


	10. Just powers don't make someone not human

**Just powers don't make someone not human.**

Next morning, somewhere in Gensoukyou.

"[English]Huh, what's Sexta doing there? " said Áviya flying above a forest clearing. She descended.

Sexta was curling into a ball under an assault of large blue butterflies. However strange that was, she was covered in bleeding wounds.

"[Castillian]Hey, Sexta! Do you need help fighting butterflies?! It looks like Ceres is powerless against them! " Áviya laughed. "[English]Let's see how they'll react to my power! " She took a bottle of water from her backpack and poured a large amount of white powder into it. It dissolve significantly faster then it was supposed to, turning water into viscous fluid. "[English]What do you think about this, butterflies?! " she said shaking the bottle.

Butterflies abandoned Sexta and flocked above the bottle. Áviya dropped a drop of the fluid on her palm and when a butterfly landed on it, she crashed her. "[English]This is my power and you are nothing against it! "

One butterfly was floating separately from others. Seeing Áviya's actions he turned into a tall man, then he grabbed the bottle and shoved Áviya on the ground. Then he drank the whole bottle in a few gulps and tossed it aside. Ragna appeared out of nowhere and slashed the empty space above the butterfly the man turned back into. Faster than eye can see she caught the butterfly and tore off his wings.

"[Swedish]What are waiting for?! Kill him! " said Áviya.

"[Swedish]Usual arrogant Áviya," said Ragna. "[Swedish]You think you can give orders to me? You're just a commoner. Besides, I want his blood."

"[Swedish]Haven't you learned your lesson about drinking insects' haemolymph? "

"[Swedish]Vampires adapt fast. After that one mistake, I can easily suppress my strange attraction to insects. I'll just wait until he'll turn back and drain his blood," said Ragna without taking her eyes off the butterfly.

Suddenly, Áviya found herself wrapped in the coils of a giant snake. Unusually for a member of that suborder she had upper torso and head of young woman instead of a giant reptilian head.

"[Swedish]Aren't you adorable," she said looking at Áviya with loving eyes and wrapped her arms around her as well.

"[Swedish]You're pretty fast for such a large organism. You have a body of a titanoboa, if I'm not mistaken," said Áviya. "[Swedish]Also, what the hell are you doing?! "

"[Swedish]It's a love at first sight," said the snake. "[Swedish]By the way, I'm Karin. I am a druid. What's your name? "

"[Swedish]I am Áviya, the Sorceress of Pestilence. Also, do you know how many diseases can be transmitted through skin contact? " said Áviya.

"[Swedish]It's such a beautiful name," said Karin, leaned closer, closed her eyes and rounded her lips.

"[Swedish]Hey! What are you... ?! " Áviya started to say but was interrupted when Karin's lips touched hers. The kiss continued for a few seconds. Then Karin let out a cry and fell coughing while about four different kinds of rashes starting to appear on her skin. Her convulsions threw Áviya away. Áviya floated for a moment and landed on her feet.

"[Swedish]Kissing a septic tank might have been a better idea! I am the personification of the Pestilence itself! " she shouted. Almost immediately someone heavy knocked her off her feet. She found herself under the left front paw of a hippo.

The butterfly, who was in the human form again, was standing to the left of the hippo. "[Swedish]You see, little girl," he said, "[Swedish]I think you are aware how much a hippo weighs. Björn is going to hold you until you reverse whatever you've done to Karin. If you try the same trick on him you'll be crushed under his weight."

"[Swedish]I thought Ragna wasn't going to release you," said Áviya.

"[Swedish]The princess ran away as soon as I tore off her cloak," said a woman in a bathrobe approaching from the opposite direction. "[Swedish] Håkan, you all have forgotten your bathrobes again. Do you want problems with police? " She took good look at Áviya and gasped. "[Swedish]Håkan, do you recognise her?! "

"[Swedish]There isn't going to be any problems," said Håkan. "[Swedish]And, yes, I know who she is. But it doesn't matter. Roll that useless undivided here, Emma."

"[Swedish]Yes, myriadi," said Emma and headed to the still form of Karin.

"[Swedish]How about this, 'myriadi? ' " said Áviya. "[Swedish]I'll give your cholera and tuberculosis if the hippo doesn't release me."

"[Swedish]Björn won't release you unless all of us are feeling well," said Håkan. The hippo nodded

Emma dragged Karin closer to Áviya. "[Swedish]Now work your magic, criminal," she said.

"[Swedish]Only humans could be criminals," said Áviya. "[Swedish]Alright." Her left hand glowed with purple and green light. " [English]Lay on hands! " she shouted as she put the hand on Karin's forehead. "[Swedish]Rise from your grave! "

Karin sneezed and rose, her skin returning to normal color.

"[Swedish]Forgive me, myriadi! I was distracted by her beauty! " she cried.

"[Swedish]I expected something like this from you," said Håkan.

"[Swedish]Are you feeling all right, Karin? " said Emma.

"[Swedish]My tongue hurts." said Karin.

"[Swedish]What did you expect putting it between my teeth? " said Áviya.

"[Swedish]What are going to do with her now? " said Emma. "[Swedish]You're not thinking about about letting her go, right, Håkan? "

"[Swedish]She is not needed now. It's better to eliminate her," said Håkan.

"[Swedish]But I love her! " cried Karin.

"[Swedish]This is really strong argument in my defence. A feeling caused by reproductive organs of some stupid human," said Áviya. "[Swedish] You have a much more serious problem. If you kill me, you will die from diseases caused by released bacteria."

"[Swedish]This is irrelevant. I am a myriadi and everyone else can be sacrificed. Crush her, Björn."

Björn shifted his weight and ... Utsuho crashed into him, knocking the druids away with her wings. She landed and stood with her cape flapping in the wind.

"[English]She is really beautiful... ," whispered Áviya. She jumped in the air and flew closer to Utsuho. "Allow me to introduce you." she said.

"Um... , okay." said Utsuho.

"[Swedish]Humans! This is Reiuji Utsuho, a hell raven with the power to control the most powerful fundamental interaction! Bow before the Subterranean Sun! " said Áviya.

"[Swedish]Just another enemy," said Håkan. "[Swedish]Björn, restrain her."

"[Swedish]Who?" rumbled Björn who had already changed into a form of a giant human.

"[Swedish]The idiot with the wings."

"[Swedish]She is not an idiot! " growled Áviya. Her hands glowed.

A large fireball grew between the druids and Áviya.

"Stop! " said Utsuho. "I am confused. You are Áviya, right? "

"How do you know my name? " said Áviya.

"Orin described you, but ... . Never mind," Utsuho shook her head. "Who are those people? "

"They are just humans who can change into forms of other animals."

"So, they are were-youkai? "

"They are not youkai, they're just humans with powers. By the way, why are here?"

"I was looking for Sexta. Satori-sama thought that she got in troubles again."

"She is lying in grass over there. I'm getting sick of all those humans around. Let's grab Sexta and get out of here."

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Björn Flodhästen Engström (human pronunciation, Swedish variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, druid. _

_**Age:**__ 25. _

_**Sex:**__ Male. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of a combination of human organs and organs of a hippopotamus. _

_2. Ability to instantaneously replace any number of human organs in his body with the homologous to them organs of biorg from genus Hippopotamus and vice versa. _

_3. Ability to cover part of his body in delirium without negative effects to him. _

_4. Ability to slowly regenerate any part of his body if he regularly transforms it (At about the same rate as humans). _

_High sensitivity to the pheromones of myriadi._

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal weaknesses of a combination of human organs and organs of a hippopotamus, except those neutralised by his abilities. _

_2. Contact with delirium not bound to his biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of his skin. _

_3. Compulsion to obey myriadi. _

_**Description:**__ Note: Only his human form is described. He is a giant. He has blue eyes. His short blonde hair form a military buzz cut. He is built like a heavyweight sumo wrestler. He usually wears only a brown bathrobe. _

**End of fragment**

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Emma Hyenan Engström (human pronunciation, Swedish variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, druid. _

_**Age:**__ 37. _

_**Sex:**__ Female. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of a combination of human organs and organs of a crocuta. _

_2. Ability to instantaneously replace any number of human organs in her body with the homologous to them organs of biorg from genus Crocuta and vice versa. _

_3. Ability to cover part of her body in delirium without negative effects to her. _

_4. Ability to slowly regenerate any part of his body if she regularly transforms it (At about the same rate as humans). _

_5. High sensitivity to the pheromones of myriadi. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal weaknesses of a combination of human organs and organs of a crocuta, except those neutralised by her abilities. _

_2. Contact with delirium not bound to her biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of her skin. _

_3. Compulsion to obey myriadi. _

_**Description:**__ Note: Only her human form is described. She is about average height. She has brown eyes. Her wild hair is coloured similar to the fur of a spotted hyena. Her breasts are average-sized. Her figure is well-rounded. She usually wears only a brown bathrobe. _

**End of fragment**

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Håkan Fjärilen Engström (human pronunciation, Swedish variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, druid, myriadi. _

_**Age:**__ 40. _

_**Sex:**__ Male. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of a combination of human organs and organs of a morpho. _

_2. Ability to instantaneously replace any number of human organs in his body with the homologous to them organs of biorg from genus Morpho and vice versa. However, since homology between insect and mammal is very vague, he is capable only of full transformation. _

_3. Ability to cover part of his body in delirium without negative effects to him. _

_4. His body is fully restored after every transformation. _

_5. In the form of insect he can produce eggs, which quickly develops into an adult morpho under his control. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal weaknesses of a combination of human organs and organs of a morpho, except those neutralised by his abilities. _

_2. Contact with delirium not bound to his biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of his skin. _

_**Description:**__ Note: Only his human form is described. He is tall. He has black eyes and short naturally blue hair. His face never shows any emotions. He has uncannily perfect muscular figure. He usually wears only a brown bathrobe. _

**End of fragment**

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Karin Ormen Engström (human pronunciation, Swedish variant). _

_**Type:**__ Abomination, druid, tainted (The only tainted abomination, because of my interference). _

_**Age:**__ 19. _

_**Sex:**__ Female. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal abilities of a combination of human organs and organs of a titanoboa. _

_2. Ability to instantaneously replace any number of human organs in her body with the homologous to them organs of biorg from genus Titanoboa and vice versa. Due to her taint, several of her 'human' organs are actually modified organs of a titanoboa. _

_3. Ability to cover part of her body in delirium without negative effects to her. _

_4. Ability to slowly regenerate any part of his body if she regularly transforms it (At about the same rate as humans). _

_5. High sensitivity to the pheromones of myriadi. _

_6. Her taint neutralises the incompatibility between her organs in 'human' form. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal weaknesses of a combination of human organs and organs of a titanoboa, except those neutralised by her abilities. _

_2. Contact with delirium not bound to her biopolymers causes uncontrolled bleeding through the whole surface of her skin. _

_3. Compulsion to obey myriadi. _

_**Description:**__ Note: Only her 'human' form is described. She towers over almost every human because of the snake part of her body but her human part is comparable in size to a human of average height. She has yellow eyes. Her black hair almost reaches the snake skin on her back. Her breasts are a little smaller than relatively large. Just under her breasts her thorax gradually continues into the body of a giant black snake scaled down to match the width of human body. She usually wears only a brown bathrobe. _

**End of fragment**

After Áviya and Utsuho left, druids stayed for some time.

"[Swedish]With all due respect to Helga, Håkan, I highly doubt that this is what she had in mind," said Emma.

"[Swedish]Of course, it isn't. But stronger enemies have better territory. It's our chance to prove ourselves. Do your best to not disappoint the highest myriadi," said Håkan. He turned to Karin. "[Swedish]And, you, the useless snake, explain your obsession with one of the enemies."

"[Swedish]I love her with all my heart! " said Karin.

"[Swedish]Karin, dear, don't you realise who she is? " said Emma. "[Swedish]The Living Biobomb would sooner drag your through the whole hospital than reciprocate your feelings."

"[Swedish]It's just because nobody likes her and everyone is cruel to her." said Karin. "[Swedish]It's just nasty rumours, anyway."

Emma sighed. "[Swedish]Love is blind."

"[Swedish]Enough," said Håkan. "[Swedish]She is useless anyway, so it doesn't matter if she is going to play with fire. But one thing, undivided, don't forget your duties."

"[Swedish]I will have as many children as necessary if Áviya is okay with that." said Karin.

"[Swedish]I doubt she will mind." said Emma.

Áviya and Utsuho flew in silence for some time.

"So, why Orin didn't go looking for Sexta. I thought that you were busy with the reactor."

"They doesn't talk to each other since Sexta learned that Orin hadn't told us about her religion. Also, she tore her arm off."

"She tore off youkai's arm?! Just how strong she is?! "

"She is definitely stronger than me. She just pulls her punches for some reason."

"Maybe it only looks like this because youkai aren't held back by the conservation of momentum. By the way, how strong are you? "

"Satori-sama said that I can theoretically lift a small blue whale. I think it's a kind of cow."

"They kinda are. Only about hundred times heavier. Wait, you mean you can lift about hundred tons?! No, don't answer this," said Áviya. "Actually,I wanted to ask you something. When you became a youkai, did it feel weird? "

"I had to get used to such a long body. It's weird to have legs way down there," said Utsuho. "I had to remind myself that these are my arms."

"The way you're holding Sexta certainly remind me of an eagle with her prey."

"Oh, and I discovered that I can see in the dark! Even with all colours! "

"That's impressive."

"No, Orin sees in the dark mush better than me. There some caves home where I won't go without a light but Orin knows them like a back of her paw. She still confuses some objects with clearly different colours for some reasons."

"Like red and green apples? "

"No, she doesn't have a problem with those. She doesn't see between ... . I don't know the name of those colours! You know, there is some flowers: Orin insists that they uniformly blue but I can clearly see patterns."

"So, this is what was the problem with her description you mentioned: she said that my clothes are monochrome but you can see different colours."

"Well, yes."

"I need you to help me choose my clothes next time. I can't afford to look a clown in the eyes of birds." Áviya noticed Utsuho's expression. "Don't worry, I'm just joking."

"It's not this. Orin also mentioned smell, but I don't feel anything."

"I don't feel anything either. But it might be just my anosmia."

"Anosmia? " said Utsuho is Áviya's voice.

"You're very good at imitating voices. I almost thought that I could add 'hearing voices' to the list of schizophrenia symptoms I exhibit. Anyway, anosmia is the inability to perceive smell. I have the congenital one."

"Do you suffer much from it? "

"Not really. It helped me get used to rotting flesh very fast."

"What's wrong with rotting flesh? Maggots are tasty."

"Well, not everyone is fortunate enough to have the liver of a scavenger. I can't digest the meat that isn't fresh. And humans tend to vomit when exposed to carrion. I mean, it's just a rotten heart without ventricles, there is no need to fill it! "

"Um... . Anyway, what were you doing under that boar? "

"What boar? Oh, you mean that hippo? Well, there was two humans: one wanted to kill but the other was against it, because she 'loves' me. What kind of objective argument is that?! "

"Love is a good reason to protect someone."

"Love is a weakness! It causes desire to reproduce and reproduction is an act of replacing yourself. Also, do you know how mammals reproduce? After conception foetus stays inside the mother, connects to her cardiovascular system and starts draining nutrients from her. And, after long period of encumbering her, they emerge, sometimes killing the mother."

"It's that terrible?! I'm glad I'm just laying eggs. Though I haven't felt the desire to do that since I've become a youkai for some reason."

"Interesting... ," said Áviya. "By the way, isn't Sexta taking too long to recover? "

"[Latino]Cerere, me ago gratiarum ad tui pro auxilii contra veneni de Apollinnis," said Sexta.

"She thinks Apollo helped her! " said Áviya. "It's more likely that he was busy herding muses on Parnassus."

Sexta lifted her head. "I don't need help from daemons, blasphemer," she spat. "You must die before your sins will lead you into the forge of Vulcanus."

"You can speak a real language?! " said Áviya. "Listen, you're very powerful and probably immortal, why do you need some weak gods? With your power nobody can make you obey them. You can do whatever you want."

"Actually, she wasn't able to defeat me," said Utsuho.

"Okay, there is some some youkai who can make you obey them. But Ceres and Apollo and Iuppiter and Vulcanus are just some weak ideal gods, why obey them? " said Áviya.

"Apollo and Iuppiter aren't gods! They are daemons! " said Sexta. "Obeying them is what you do! "

"Daemon often just means 'evil god.' Whether god is evil or good doesn't make difference to me. To influence my behaviour god have to be at least partially material, like Kanako," said Áviya. "And you, even with your gods and daemons, was defeated by mere butterflies."

Sexta growled.

"Out of arguments already? Usually I am the first to lose my temper in such conversations," said Áviya.

Sexta broke out of Utsuho's hold and plummeted to the ground. Utsuho dived after her, caught her and regained altitude holding thrashing Sexta by the wrist at arm's length.

"What the hell was that? Demonstration of her stupidity? " said Áviya.

"Well... ," said Utsuho. "The thing is that when she is very angry she starts attacking everybody and everything around her starts to melt or burn."

"So she is a berserker... ," said Áviya. "Okay, let's stop talking about gods for the sake of my survival. How did she learn Japanese? "

"We were fighting and I accidentally burned the skin from her forehead," said Utsuho. "Satori-sama noticed that she can read Sexta's mind when her skull is bare. So she hypnotised her and put the language in her brain."

"Put? " said Áviya.

"She was saying lots of words very quickly," said Utsuho. "She told us that her ability let her know which word will fit in each moment."

"I can imagine that: she and Sexta is sitting across from each other and you are constantly burning Sexta's forehead while Satori is speaking like Yuki casting her spells. Strangely, I never saw Anima doing that. Also, why it's so hot suddenly? "

"We are already in the Hell of Blazing Fires."

"Dammit, we need to need to cross it quickly before I will be fried alive. Would you help me? "

"Okay," said Utsuho. She took Áviya's hand and they shot off to Chireiden.

At Chireiden Utsuho and Áviya landed and Sexta jumped away from them.

"You brought a guest, Okuu? " said Satori.

"Damn," said Áviya.

Satori's third eye peered at Áviya. "Kill her," she said. A black cat leaped from a shadow and suddenly Orin was holding Áviya while the claws of her right hand resting at Áviya's throat.

"Unyu? " said Utsuho.

"May I play with her a little before that? " asked Orin playfully.

"No! " said Sexta. "She must be burned according to the ritual! "

"Your religion have a special ritual just for me? " said Áviya. "Orin, it's hard to speak with your claws so close to my thyroid cartilage."

"You are obviously the Chosen of Minerva," said Sexta. "Fire will purify you."

"I doubt it." said Áviya. "You'll need a pretty big fire to neutralise all the bacteria I'm carrying."

"So I have to choose between plague among my pets and having to tolerate your mess of a mind? " Satori sighed. "Orin, release her."

Freed, Áviya rubbed her throat closing the scratches. She looked around and said, "Can you do something about Sexta? She looks like she going to disembowel me."

"Sexta, go to your room," said Satori. "So, you want to know about my hypnosis."

"Wow, it's really much easier to talk with a telepath," said Áviya. "I bet you can't hypnotise me! "

"Hypnotising is just the matter of saying right words in the right moments," said Satori. "Let me demonstrate. Look into my eyes. Sleep... , blood..." So it continued for about ten minutes until Áviya was sitting on her knees in the state resembling catatonia.

"Well, that was disgusting," said Satori. "I need a bath after that."

"I will make one right away." said Áviya obediently, still with the grin on her face.

Satori winced. "What are the right words? .." she said. "Ah, yes... . [Castillian]Acepta a Jesucristo como tu señor y salvador."

Áviya's knife clinked on Utsuho's control rod in front of Satori's neck. "[Castillian]En los nueve infiernos." hissed Áviya.

"I didn't expect such a strong reaction," said Satori. "What did I say? "

" 'Accept Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour,' " said Áviya. "It was one of my father's favourite phrases."

"What happened to him? " Satori paused. "You killed him? "

"He was the first human I killed directly."

"Directly? "

"You know how it is with killing indirectly: someone forgets to close a tap, someone slips on the puddle, a car crashes, someone doesn't get their insulin in time and accidentally knocks off a crate, it falls on the tail of a cat, who becomes angry, catches a mouse and eats her."

"It seems that the only reason you aren't saying everything you think is because you don't have enough time for that," said Satori.

"Maybe. So, how did the hypnosis go? "

"You are very creepy when being obedient, so I had to end the hypnotic trance quickly," said Satori.

Áviya's grin widened but she said nothing.

" 'Let me lick you feet, Mistress'? " said Satori.

"That would be inappropriate, wouldn't it? " said Áviya.

"Yes, it would" said Satori.

"By the way, I would to work with Utsuho on one project." said Áviya. "Is this all right if I ..."

"Don't listen to her! " interrupted Sexta who entered a moment before. "It's all Minerva's lies! "

"Unlike you, I don't need Minerva to lie. Also, I never misrepresent facts." said Áviya.

Sexta growled at leaped at her missing only because Áviya swiftly rose in the air.

"I think you better leave," said Satori. "And I don't think that angering Sexta is 'fun'."

"If you say so." said Áviya. "Utsuho, would help me get through the Hell of Blazing Fires? "

"Okay," said Utsuho.


	11. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft

**Kritik der praktischen Vernunft.**

Some time later Áviya was at the edge of Gensoukyou.

"So, Anima, whose bright idea was to write my name in giant green letters in the sky? " said Áviya.

"Your presence is necessary for one of my experiments. I found another tainted specimen of your species." said Anima pointing at an unconscious young man lying on the grass.

"Firstly, my species contain only one individual. Secondly, I thought you said that I am the only tainted who survived."

"I only said that you are the first. He is the second."

"The second one already? Should I expect the third one soon? "

"Yes, if you used 'expect' as a synonym to 'be pregnant with'. If not, then it is unnecessary."

"What the hell you mean 'be pregnant'?! I am asexual if you didn't notice! "

"You are merely incapable of sexual arousal. Conception is still possible. I have corrected the flaw in your taint that would have resulted in apoptosis of foetus. The purpose of this experiment is to create self-sustainable population of tainted humans. I will bring survived tainted and select their offspring for increased susceptibility to taint."

"I am not a human! Also, self-sustainable? So you won't use artificial insemination? "

"No. You have to have sex with him."

"Have fun waiting for that! I am not letting any parasites into my body! "

"I will disable this avatar now. My observation shows that humans prefer to mate in private," Anima disappeared with this words

"For third time, I am not a human! " said Áviya. "Damn. Well, I suppose I could at least learn his name and powers." And she descended to lying human.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "[German]Scheiße! You're that Áviya," he said.

"[German]Of course I am. What made you think that there is another? " said Áviya.

"[German]Wishful thinking, probably." He sat up. "[German]My name is Chris Weber if that Japanese schoolgirl haven't told you already."

"[German]That Japanese schoolgirl is an avatar of an omniscient and omnipotent alien computer. She just uses the appearance of Nagato Yuki."

"[German]I thought I saw her somewhere before. Just to make this clear, I think that you are an immoral monster and I don't want to have anything to do with you so I no going to do what she wants from me."

"[German]Like I want to do it. I wouldn't have sex with human even for immortality. Well, I'm willing to consider it in that case... Actually, let me check something," said Áviya and kissed Chris.

"[German]Why did you do this?! " said Chris breaking the kiss.

"[German]You were a control group. You see, a female snake kissed me today and I wanted to check if my reaction depends on the sex of other participant."

"[German]I guess not, seeing that you didn't even close your eyes... Wait, a female snake?! "

"[German]It's a long story. By the way, are you human? "

"[German]Of course I am. Why are you asking that? Wait a minute, you aren't a zoophile, are you? "

"[German]Do I look like an idiot? Only idiots would have sex if their genitalia are incompatible."

"[German]Why did you ask if I was human, then? "

"[German]Anima said that you are tainted. I wonder what powers you have."

"[German]What difference does that makes? I am still human even if I can turn myself invisible."

"[German]Neat. Is that the invisibility that makes you blind or the one that leave you visible to cameras? "

"[German]Neither."

"[German]That's impossible! Show me."

Chris disappeared.

"[German]Now, what am I doing? " said Áviya.

"[German]You raised your right hand." said Chris still invisible.

"[German]Is that all? "

"[German]Yes, unless you have a tail and are making some rude gestures with it behind your back."

"[German]Interesting. You can become visible now."

"[German]Your tests doesn't make sense, Áviya..." said Chris appearing. "[German]Why the devil is your hand glowing?! "

"[German]Your didn't notice while your were invisible. Even if you had only monochromatic vision, you would have noticed the change of colour. So you can perceive shape of objects but not the light they emit. I'm betting it's echolocation."

"[German]So you think I'm a bat, now? Though, I admit that some of my activities bear some resemblance to that of Batman."

"[German]Let me guess, you've got extraordinary powers and found nothing better to do than fighting for justice? Your powers gave you freedom from society, you don't have to obey its laws."

"[German]I don't expect immoral sociopath like you to understand that. I want to help people. That's why I'm studying law.

"[German]Law? .." said Áviya derisively. "[German]Perhaps you know the case 'Áviya vs the only wooden church in Berlin'."

"[German]You burned it. Why did do that? Even if you are an atheist you should respect other people's beliefs."

"[German]I'm a misotheist"

"[German]Misotheist? So you do believe in God? "

"[German]I don't believe in any god. Gods exist independently of belief in them. Belief only gives them power."

"[German]How can you say that gods exist if you don't believe in them? "

"[German]It's simple. Let me start with an example. Did Faust made a pact with Mephistopheles? "

"[German]Yes? But how is this relevant? .."

"[German]So Faust making an action is an objective fact. That makes his existence an objective fact. Granted, he isn't a material being but ideal. The same is with gods: they are ideal being that can manipulate humans. By killing religious humans I deprive them of power."

"[German]That's a very sick excuse for killing people."

"[German]I kill humans for other reason as well. By the way, what's your own stance on gods? "

"[German]I'm agnostic."

"[German]So you will believe in a god if you meet her? .." said Áviya thoughtfully looking past Chris. "[German]Actually this gives me an idea. Hey, Sanae! " she shouted waving.

"What's the matter? " asked Sanae descending.

"[German]Chris, this is Kochiya Sanae, priestess of the Wind Goddess and a living god," said Áviya. "Sanae, this is Chris Weber. He wants to meet lady Kanako."

"[German]It's a pleasure to meet you." said Chris.

"He doesn't speak Japanese, does he? " asked Sanae.

"I don't know," said Áviya. "[German]Chris, can you understand her? "

"[German]No." said Chris.

"He doesn't." said Áviya.

"Well, then. Lady Kanako, grant me the tongues of the minds." prayed Sanae.

"What was that? " said Áviya.

"I asked lady Kanako to grant me ability to communicate without language barriers," said Sanae.

"Then why do I hear you speaking in Castillian?! Use another language! " said Áviya

"This spell makes everyone hear me in their native language. I can't control it." said Sanae.

"[German]Listen, Áviya, if she can understand you regardless of language, maybe you will switch to German? " said Chris.

"[English]You too?! To hell with that! I'm going somewhere where I won't be hearing mutated remains of a dead language! " Áviya flew away.

"I she always like that? " asked Sanae.

"[German]I don't know. It was the first time I met her in person. I only know her from news and rumours." said Chris. "[German]Oh, devil. It just hit me who exactly I was talking to."

"Who? "

"[German]There are a lots of rumours about her. That she is one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, that everything starts to rot near her, that she leaves a trail of rotten flesh behind her, that everyone who met her will die excruciating death from an unknown disease. She certainly have some power over disease and her death will probably cause a pandemic but everything else is subject to speculation."

"Lady Kanako needs to hear about this. But first, do you want to meet her? "

"[German]I guess. Talking with someone sane wouldn't hurt. Where does she lives? "

"On the shrine atop that mountain."

"[German]How will I get there? I can't fly."

"Don't worry, the wind will carry you."

"[German]You can control wind? "

"Of course I can. It's one of powers granted to me by lady Kanako."

**Fragment from Anima's log 381**

_**Name:**__ Chris (human pronunciation, English variant) Weber (human pronunciation, German variant). _

_**Type:**__ Human, tainted. _

_**Age:**__ 22. _

_**Sex:**__ Male. _

_**Abilities:**_

_1. Normal human abilities. _

_2. Ability to create a permeable surface around him that absorbs photons and emit them as if they have travelled in a straight line through the air. _

_3. Ability to emit ultrasound. _

_4. Ability to perceive shape of objects surrounding him from the echoes caused by emitted ultrasound. _

_**Weaknesses:**_

_1. Normal human weaknesses, except those neutralised by his abilities. _

_2. The surface surrounds only the objects that he perceives as part of himself. _

_**Description:**__ He is slighter taller than average. His hair is brown. He has brown eyes. He usually wears white shirt, black trousers, brown shoes and a scabbard with his bokken. _

**End of fragment**

Sanae and Chris stopped in a clearing on the coast of the lake.

"Wait here." said Sanae. "I need to speak with lady Kanako first." And she flew in the direction of the Moriya shrine.

Chris had to wait several minutes before a little blonde girl in a strange hat appeared.

"[German]Are you lost? " he asked.

The girl raised her tear-stained face. "Yes," she sniffed. "My sister left me here."

"[German]Don't cry. We'll find your sister. How does she look like? "

"She is tall and beautiful."

"[German]No offence but this could apply to the third of all women I've met. Can you remember the colour of her eyes at least? "

"I don't remember! She is a shrine maiden in that shrine." The girl pointed at the Moriya shrine.

"[German]Then why don't we go there? "

"Because I'm lost here, obviously," said the girl without tears in her voice, which strangely came from behind Chris. He turned and saw another girl identical to the first. An evil grin appeared on her face and another four copies appeared from the woods.

"[German]What the devil is going on here?! " said Chris drawing his sword.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm testing you." said the girls in one voice. "Kind and brave, I like it. What do you think, Sanae? "

"I think that that's enough messing with his mind," said Sanae who just returned. "Chris, this is lady Suwako, one of goddesses of my shrine."

"[German]You mean she isn't your sister? "

"No, she is my great-great-...-great-grandmother. I'm not sure how many 'great' are there," said Sanae.

"[German]Call me stupid but I don't understand how ten-year-old girl can be someone's mother, much less great-great-great-grandmother." said Chris.

"Sorry, we don't have time for this," said Sanae. "Lady Kanako is already waiting. It would be impolite to delay any further. Let's go! "

With a gust of wind Chris was moved to the entrance of the shrine. Sanae landed nearby.

"Lady Kanako is waiting for you inside," she said. "Enter."

Chris entered.

"Sit, please," said Kanako.

Chris looked around and not finding any chairs sat on the floor.

"[German]So, you're a god," he said.

"Yes."

"[German]I still don't understand how there can be a god. Isn't the God supposed to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent? "

Kanako laughed. "Being responsible for the whole world is to much even for a god. I offer much simpler deal: miracles in exchange for faith."

"[German]So you haven't created the world and don't have some kind of divine plan? "

"I'm nothing like Yahweh if that's what you implying. Well, I was a war goddess once, so we have that in common. And as far as I know Yahweh doesn't exist in this world, so I am the best god you can find."

"[German]How can you be so sure? "

"It's not hard to notice his absence. Before I moved to Gensoukyou I could feel that he dominates half of the world. In this world there is no gods outside of Gensoukyou."

"[German]Gensoukyou? What is that? "

"It was region of Japan in another world sealed off to preserve youkai. Several days ago it was moved into this world."

"[German]So you are a Japanese god? Are you speaking German or is it just seems like that to me? "

"Everyone hear me in their own languages. Gods transcend language barriers."

Chris started to ask something but Kanako interrupted him.

"Sanae will explain everything to you later. Now tell me about that Áviya. I thought that she is just an ordinary crazy human but she seems to be something much more dangerous."

"[German]She is a mass-murderer and a terrorist. Her reputation is such that she can go into store, take what she wants and leave without paying and nobody would stop her even if she slaughtered someone in the alcohol aisle. She had destroyed churches and temples. She has complete disregard for human life. Several towns were wiped by the epidemics she had caused."

"And humans of the Outside World haven't done anything about? "

"[German]She was arrested several times and even went to prison one time. Everyone in that prison except her died from infectious diseases. Nobody is willing to antagonise her."

"It looks like she is too dangerous to leave alive."

"[German]Maybe but she still has the right to live! "

"Why is that? "

"[German]Because it's an inalienable natural right and murder is a crime."

"But she will certainly kill more people."

"[German]That's why she should be imprisoned."

"Doesn't matter. Gods have the right to kill ones who sin." said Kanako rising.

Kanako found Áviya near the Human Village.

"Áviya! You have sinned too much! " boomed Kanako's voice. "As much as I hate burrowing Enma's lines" she added.

"You have no idea how often I hear this," said Áviya. "Do you want to kill me too? "

"You are too dangerous to leave alive."

"Come on, I'm no more dangerous than youkai."

"You are not a youkai. You don't even have a soul."

"I'm not a human either. If you kill me all my bacteria will be released. There is enough pathogens to crash the whole ecosystem."

"That's not a problem for me. My winds will contain them." Swirling winds appeared around Áviya.

Orin and Utsuho arrived at the scene.

"See, Okuu? I told you they were fighting," said Orin.

Utsuho flew to the mini-hurricane, turned towards Kanako and shouted spreading her wings and arms, "Don't kill her! She is a good person! I will protect her! "

"Don't say that Utsuho." said Áviya "Say that you're protecting me because I was nice to you or because you like me or because of some other objective fact." Her voice was drowned by the winds but Kanako somehow heard her.

"What did you expect from a birdbrain? " said Kanako.

"She is not a birdbrain, you mammalbrained god! " shouted Áviya. "How did this happen? There was one god I was willing to tolerate and I'm already angry at her."

"Those who seeks favours from gods shouldn't sin."

"Why do you follow human morality? You're supposed to be objective."

"Human morality has an objective basis. Kant's categorical imperative, for example."

"Categorical imperative assumes that everyone is identical. Every animal will derive different moral laws from it."

"Animal can't make moral choices."

"I can make a choice! " said Utsuho. "And I've chosen to defend her."

"I apologise," said Kanako. "Our dialogue must have haven't made much sense to sense. So, you wouldn't let me kill her."

"Never! " said Utsuho

"Killing you isn't an option. Say, I let her live if you imprison her in Chireiden. What do you say? "

"Don't agree to that, Okuu! " said Orin. "She's not worth it. Besides, I will have to keep Sexta from killing her when you're busy with the reactor"

"She doesn't deserve death," said Okuu. "I agree to everything."

"Then take her and go," said Kanako dismissing the winds.

Utsuho grabbed the hand of dizzied Áviya and dragged her towards the entrance to the Underground Geyser Center.


End file.
